Westminster diary

ACROSS Reading, Woodley and Earley, the Jubilee spirit was in full swing and it was so lovely to see communities coming together and celebrating amongst themselves.

It provided, for some people, a four-day respite from the day-to-day challenges faced through the rampant cost of living crisis and job insecurity which show no signs of improving.

But while we were able to laugh together and renewing bonds in our communities, the realities of the problems we face came back into sharp relief with announcements last week that the Energy price cap is likely to rise by

46% - taking the average household bill to nearly £3,000 a year.

Run-away inflation is also continuing to drive up the cost of food with shopping basked staples such as pasta jumping in price by 50%, minced beef and bread by 16% and breakfast cereals by 10% according to the Office of National Statistics.

The squeeze on family finances is felt at the petrol pumps with

Petrol being 46.9p per litre more expensive than a year ago and diesel is up by 52.9p per litre – and as a result the Government is collecting record levels of VAT on petrol and diesel.

The Government’s much trumpeted ‘oil and gas excess profits levy’ – which we are to believe was not just a tactic to distract from the Sue Gray report – will actually allow some oil and gas companies to reduce their tax because of new rules allowing any profit earmarked for future investment to be excluded from the calculations.

The Chancellor’s new ‘levy’ is also not retrospective – meaning the billions in profits that have been made by oil and gas giants already will be entirely untouched.

While the latest support offered by the Government is welcome, it will not be nearly enough to prevent the huge bills most people can expect this winter.

And this is why the current furore around the Prime Minister’s lawbreaking and the culture he presided over in Downing Street is a problem.

It seems that every minister, every cabinet member and those charged with running our country and tackling the huge challenges we face are, instead spending almost all their on saving the Prime Minister’s job.

Rather than getting a grip on the cost-of-living crisis or sorting the chaos in our airports, they’re busy working up their next scheme to convince their own colleagues that Boris Johnson is fit to be

Prime Minister.

Rather than working out how to tackle climate change or bring down crime, all energy is spent telling Conservative MPs and the general public that the Prime Minister is very sorry for the No 10 parties he attended and that we should all forgive him.

The reality is that while Government remains paralysed by its own actions and with

148 Conservative MPs no longer having confidence in the Prime Minister, we will all pay the price and that simply cannot be allowed to continue.

Matt Rodda is MP for Reading East