Karin Smyth, MP for Bristol South, calls for an emergency Budget to tackle the cost-of-living crisis as the National Insurance rise hits people in Bristol South’s pay packets this week.
Families in Bristol South have already been hit with record rises in energy prices, record high petrol prices and staggeringly steep hikes in the cost of food and other essentials. As new economic forecasts raise concerns about the spiralling cost of living, and the UK expected to see the lowest growth and highest inflation in the G7 next year, the Labour Party is demanding action from the Tory Government.
The Tory Government has so far offered no solutions for the cost-of-living crisis thus far. The buy now, pay later energy loan just kicks the can down the road. The National Insurance rise, framed as a funding stream for social care, has seemingly been spent many times over and any hypothetical benefits don’t arrive until years down the line. This piles on pressure to family’s budgets who are caring for loved ones and sees carers left with little support.
An emergency Budget should prioritise 5 measures that could be enacted now to make an immediate difference to the millions of pensioners and working people feeling financial pressure from the crisis. These include putting a one-off windfall tax on oil and gas producers to cut home energy bills, scrapping the National Insurance hike and ramping up home upgrade schemes to insulate homes and make them more energy efficient.
A failure to implement an emergency Budget not only shows neglect for people up and down the country it shows the economic incompetence of the Tory Government to get the economy firing on all cylinders again.
Karin Smyth, MP for Bristol South, said:
“Whilst the Tories are too busy focusing on their own internal strife and saving the Prime Minister’s skin, working people in Bristol South this week have seen their pay packets squeezed further as they are hit with a National Insurance hike at the worst possible time.
“This Tory Government is putting up people’s taxes whilst doing nothing to help with the cost-of-living crisis. Labour has practical, pragmatic ideas that would save households in Bristol South hundreds of pounds on their bills, while scrapping the Tory Government’s unfair tax rise on working people.
“I am calling for an emergency budget to put these ideas into action and fill the gaping lack of support hole left by the spring statement. People across the UK are desperately struggling under the financial pressures of the cost-of-living crisis. The Government cannot continue to sit there and do nothing, meaningful action is needed now.”