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'Out of touch and out of ideas': Labour takes aim at the Tories as local elections kick off

THE government was slammed yesterday for its shocking responses to the cost-of-living crisis as voters head to the polls for the local elections tomorrow.

Environment Secretary George Eustice told families struggling to pay bills and put food on the table to switch to supermarket “value” products.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson boasted about introducing the Freedoom Pass in London, despite it being introduced in 1973, when asked on Good Morning Britain about the case of 77-year-old Elsie riding the bus all day to save on energy bills.

And last week, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said it would be silly to provide more support to tackle rising energy bills before seeing what happens to prices in the autumn.

Calling the Tories “out of touch and out of ideas,” shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said that voting for Labour today would send a clear message to the government that “Britain deserves better.”

She said: “The response by the Conservatives to the cost-of-living crisis has been nothing short of insulting.

“People are worried about paying their bills and ministers are seriously suggesting the answer is dodgy loans and Tesco value.

“The Conservatives are living on another planet.”

The Labour MP called for an emergency Budget, with action to bring down bills by up to £600 with a windfall tax on oil and gas producer profits.

SNP Westminster deputy leader Kristen Oswald called Mr Eustice’s comments “utterly patronising and insulting” and urged people in Scotland to vote SNP in the local elections.

She said: “Rather than bringing forward meaningful financial measures to help support families and to put money into people’s pockets, the Tory government is instead sitting on its hands and resorting to treating people with contempt.”

Linda Burnip, of Disabled People Against Cuts, called on the government to increase social security payments by £20 a week and to urgently impose an energy cap increase.

She also demanded an immediate end to charging for social care, which should be free at the point of need like the NHS.

Ms Burnip told the Star: “Social security payments have risen by a mere 3 per cent in April yet rampant inflation has already reached 7 per cent and is set to rise still further.

“As well as ‘normal’ fuel usage, many disabled people have additional needs to charge wheelchairs, hoists, machines that help with breathing and so on.

“One additional major source of poverty faced by older and disabled people who need social care is councils’ — including Labour councils’ —  care-charging policies which leave disabled people over 25 with a Minimum Income Guarantee of only £153 a week.

“[This] hasn’t increased since 2015 and has fallen further and further behind inflation.

“People are now talking about older and disabled people and others existing in poverty having to choose between heating and eating but for many in those groups, this has already been the reality for almost 12 years of austerity.

“DPAC believe there will be many more deaths through lack of heating, malnutrition, increasing poverty, debt and destitution.”

Ms Burnip also hit out at Labour for failing to represent disabled and older people, family carers and non-working parents who make up a large portion of the electorate.

“If they want our votes they must change their attitudes and policies,” she said.

Fuel Poverty Action spokeswoman Ruth London called energy pricing in Britain “upside down,” adding: “Because of the outrageous standing charges that no-one can avoid, you pay less per unit if you use more energy, and you pay more if you use less.

“Even if you go cold and turn in early, you still have to pay a big bill.”

The campaign group’s Energy For All plan aims to provide each household with enough free energy to keep warm and keep the lights on — paid for by a windfall tax.

On Mr Sunak’s “silly” comments, Ms London said: “We know what will happen, Mr Sunak. People will die of poverty.

“But they won’t be people in your family.”

Neil Cowan, of the Poverty Alliance, said that the government is failing to help households, leaving them with insecure and falling incomes.

He said the simple things to do would be to raise benefits in line with inflation, scrap the unjust benefits cap and put a windfall tax on big energy companies.

“The actions that the government have put in place are not effective, and the Chancellor’s Spring Statement was a massive missed opportunity,” he told the Star.

“We are on course to see another 400,000 people across the UK swept into poverty.

“Ultimately, that represents a failure of courage, a failure of compassion, and a failure of justice.”

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