Western Morning News (Saturday)
Keir attacks government response
LABOUR leader Sir Keir Starmer said people do not “want a revolution” – they want to be able to afford food and their energy bills.
Speaking to Sky News, he said the Government “does not get the scale of the problem for millions and millions of people”.
He added: “People don’t want a revolution. They do want to know ‘how am I going to pay my energy bill which has just gone up today by hundreds of pounds’.
“I was in Stevenage last week talking to pensioners. They weren’t saying ‘Keir, we want the revolution’. They were saying ‘Keir, we’re really worried about our bills’.
“For people to make a choice between heating and eating – in 21st century Britain what people want to know is, does the Labour Party understand those worries? The answer is yes, we do.”
He branded the Government’s response to the cost-of-living crisis as “pathetic” and said its decision to hike national insurance rates is “the wrong tax at the wrong time”.
But Policing Minister Kit Malthouse said there is hope that inflation will “recede shortly” and Chancellor Rishi Sunak is studying the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.
He told BBC Breakfast the “quite significant” 54% increase to Ofgem’s energy price cap had presented an “extremely tough” situation “against a background of inflation and to see these rises in day-to-day living costs”.
Mr Malthouse said Mr Sunak had “moved quite extensively to try and help”, adding: “I can’t pretend to you it isn’t tough.
“It is going to be, as we see this inflation in fuel prices spike at the moment – hopefully receding shortly – it is going to be hard, and we’re all going to have to work together to get through it.
“I know that the Chancellor of the Exchequer is looking very closely on almost a daily basis at the impact it is having on individuals and their families, and across the economy, and trying to balance the assistance we give, within the financial constraints we’ve got – with an economy, don’t forget, having just come out of a pandemic, having spent 400-odd billion pounds keeping people going through two extremely tough years.”
When it was put to him that the Chancellor did not do enough to help the public in the spring statement, Mr Malthouse replied: “He has moved twice now to bring in assistance.”
Charities have warned that 2.5 million more households are set to fall into “fuel stress” as the 54% increase hits bills, with many simply unable to pay.