Tag Archives: cost of living crisis

Katharine Pindar

Our challenge is needed now on the cost of living crisis

By Katharine Pindar | Fri 4th October 2024 - 2:51 pm

Our election pledge was clear: after commitment to the NHS and social care and protecting the environment, ‘We will help people with the cost of living.’

We knew that was what most people wanted, after we had knocked on 2,741,251 doors (thanks, HQ!) in the General Election campaign, and national focus groups and polls had confirmed it.

A Labour Party study into How Labour Won, reported in The Guardian, found that people voting Labour in this campaign  had the same priorities. But what is the new Labour Government doing to help with the cost of living?

Taking the Winter Fuel Allowance away from millions of pensioners was a poor start. Justifying that by referring to the expected increase in the Triple Lock payments next April? The point seems lost on this Government, that pensioners have to try to live through the coldest months of this winter before April, now missing the extra hundreds of pounds that had helped with heating costs in past winters.

Our MPs moved a motion against the cut in the Commons. And now is surely the time for our Leader to challenge Keir Starmer at PMQs on the continuing crisis of the cost of living. The cost of gas and electricity went up on October 1st. The price of oil may rise with the continuing Middle East conflicts. Yet the help with household energy bills which was even managed by the late Conservative Government is not being offered now.

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Katharine Pindar

As inflation rises again, let’s speak up for all the unheard

By Katharine Pindar | Fri 16th August 2024 - 10:43 am

The latest report from the IFS this week, ‘Cheapflation and the rise of inflation inequality’, found that in the years 2020 to 2022 inflation hit the poorest hardest. Their staples such as milk, butter and pasta rose more in price in supermarkets than did higher-priced foodstuffs. They paid 29.1% more for their groceries, compared with 23.5% for better-off households. The IFS calculated that if the poorest 25% of households had faced the same inflation rate for groceries as the richest 25%, their annual food bills would have been cut by £100.

While food price inflation has reduced in the last 18 months or so (rather contrary to many people’s perception) the slight rise in general inflation, now at 2.2%, seems expected by economists to continue. That is likely to continue to affect the less well-off more than the better-off because of their need to spend a greater proportion of their income on basics, whether foodstuffs or gas and electricity.

Households with unpaid carers are among those most likely to be affected. Carers UK reported in 2022 that there may be 10.6m unpaid carers. With the cost of living crisis, the charity reported, carers were facing unprecedented pressure on their finances, with a quarter cutting back on essentials like food and heating, and 63% extremely worried about managing their monthly costs. Some 44% of working-age adults who are caring for 35 hours or more per week are in poverty, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in its 2022 UK Poverty report, cited by Carers UK.

Research from the TUC reported widespread poverty among workers in the care economy a year ago. It found that 62% of childcare workers and social care workers were earning less than the real living wage. Social care workers were earning only about 65% of the median salary for all employees, £21,500 a year compared with £33,000, while child care workers only earned £18,400, 56% of the median salary.

TUC research in June this year also reported on low wage growth generally, finding that over the past 14 years, child poverty has increased by, on average, an additional 1300 children a week in households with at least one working parent. The TUC said a ‘“toxic combination” of pay stagnation, rising insecure work and cuts to social security have had a “devastating impact on family budgets”’. 

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David Brunnen

The Poverty Pandemic, fossil fuels and consumer advertising

By David Brunnen | Tue 5th December 2023 - 9:09 am

The UK’s Poverty Pandemic (aka ‘Cost of Living Crisis’) was already coursing through the lifeblood of society long before COVID-19. Over the past decade, the Poverty Pandemic has been more damaging than COVID-19 and far less easily treated. Indeed, many who promoted this Poverty Pandemic’s root causes may dismiss the inequities as collateral damage in the cause of the Conservative’s economic treadmill — a heartless Darwinian devotion to the survival of top dogs.

To excuse this Poverty Pandemic as ‘a crisis’ as if it might one day pass away is ‘deflective marketing’ where ‘problems’ are progressively reframed as ‘challenges’, and ‘challenges’ become ‘opportunities’, and imagined opportunities become the elusive ‘sunlit uplands’ in the search for infinite compound growth or some such supposedly faster-spinning hamster wheel, further fuelled by Brexit. Foodbanks, Pantries, and ‘charity shops’ were well established before that Brexit twist of the economic knife and before Covid-19 preyed upon endemic poverties that lacked insulation against escalating energy prices.

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Caron Lindsay

Ed Davey calls for action to help those struggling with rising bills

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 16th August 2023 - 8:48 am

As inflation falls to 6.8%, Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey appeared on Sky News this morning to give our party’s reaction:

While it was positive news that prices aren’t using quite so fast, he said, but they are rising fast,  faster than they are in many other countries and faster than they have for many, many years.

Families and pensioners when they go and do their shopping, when they get their energy bill, when they pay their mortgage, their rents, they are still seeing them go up by huge amounts. And what is worrying Liberal Democrats today is that this month’s inflation figures will be used to calculate rail fares for next year and we are calling for a freeze as some way of helping people who are really really struggling.

Challenged that the Government has to balance the books, Ed said that we always do balance the books and go to the country with a fully costed manifesto, compared to the Conservatives who have been reckless with Government money and that’s why the country is in such a mess.

I listen to Conservative ministers and they seem so out of touch with the realities that most families and pensioners are facing. When we talk about these sorts of figures they seem quite complacent and give themselves a pat on the back when families are really struggling out there. I just want a Government that seems to care a bit more and this lot just don’t.

Let’s just pause a minute there. This “families and pensioners” phrase irks me a bit. It isn’t quite as bad as the awful “hard working families”, but it completely ignores a huge swathe of people who are struggling just as much as the soft Tory voters in the blue wall seats we are going after. They like the “families and pensioners” language because it has a comforting ring of deserving poor about it but that’s no excuse.

We need to make sure that the young people struggling to get by on low incomes, earning less and getting less in benefits despite living costs being just as high feel included, or the growing number of single person households with only themselves to rely on.

What’s wrong with just using people? Our mission as Liberal Democrats is to build a fair, free and open society where NO-ONE is enslaved by poverty, ignorance and conformity and our language should reflect that universality. We have so many good ideas that would help all people who are struggling so it seems a shame to limit our language.

Rant over and back to the interview. Ed was challenged that our plans to help people were not realistic. He said:

The real world is that the economy is struggling and we need to get people back to work. If you took up Liberal Democrat ideas to boost the economy, you would get more people using public transport which is more important for our economy, for the environment and so you have many benefits.

I just think the Government is so out of touch. They don’t seem to get how the combination of  price rises, mortgages, rents, energy bells railway fares, is hitting people.  We’ve calculated that a commuter family is going to be clobbered by an extra bill of £300 every month due to the combination of mortgage, food and rail fares. This is a huge amount and when I hear government ministers saying they can’t do anything. They could do something but they don’t. The fact that they don’t backs up my argument that they are out of touch and don’t care.

He was asked whether the energy price cap should be rethought as it harmed competition:

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Michal Siewniak

The impact of the inflation and cost of living crisis on individuals and families

By Michal Siewniak | Mon 31st July 2023 - 2:43 pm

It would be a huge understatement if I was to say that the inflation, the current energy and the cost of living crisis is negatively affecting people’s lives. There is no doubt in my mind that we are not even close out of the woods and as predicted by many economists, the aftermath of the ongoing hardship will continue for many months, if not years.

The consequences of government policies, since COVID but also in recent years, has dominated many of my conversations with my friends and colleagues. There are thousands of stories of people, who are having to make a …

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Mark Valladares

13 June 2023 – today’s press release

By Mark Valladares | Tue 13th June 2023 - 11:55 pm

ONS pay squeeze figures show families being “clobbered” by cost of living crisis

Responding to today’s ONS figures showing yet another fall in real-terms pay once inflation is taken into account, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

While this endless Conservative psychodrama unfolds, hardworking families are being clobbered by the cost of living crisis.

This Government is so mired in their own infighting that they are neglecting the real issues that matter to people. This is a party that is out of touch and out of ideas.

Families and pensioners have suffered under this Government

…

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Mark Valladares

20 April 2022 -today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 20th April 2023 - 10:45 pm
  • 4.3 million anti-social behaviour reports go unattended by police in past five years
  • Lib Dems demand food summit in Downing Street to tackle “tsunami” of rising food prices
  • Welsh Health Statistics – Emergency Social Care Plan Needed
  • Raab Report: More dither and delay

4.3 million anti-social behaviour reports go unattended by police in past five years

  • Over 2,000 incidents of anti-social behaviour went unattended by police each day last year
  • Some police forces attending fewer than one in five (19%) incidents
  • Lib Dem Leader Ed Davey calls for “return to proper community policing” with more bobbies on the beat

A staggering 4.3 million reports of anti-social behaviour have …

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Mark Valladares

18 April 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 18th April 2023 - 10:30 pm
  • ONS pay-squeeze figures: The Government simply doesn’t care
  • Rise in faulty sewage monitors as water firms accused of “covering up environmental scandal”
  • Prepayment meters: This half-measure is an insult
  • Lib Dems launch digital campaign on A to Z of Conservative sleaze and scandal
  • Calls For Welsh Labour to Take Stronger Action on Coal Mining Following Successful Lords Vote

ONS pay-squeeze figures: The Government simply doesn’t care

Responding to the latest ONS unemployment and earnings figures which saw average pay fall by 2.3% in the year to December 2022 to February 2023, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said:

This is a damning verdict on the Government’s attempt to end the cost of living crisis.

Jeremy Hunt is the latest out of touch Conservative Chancellor to completely fail on rising prices.

The Conservative party’s gross mismanagement of the British economy has lead to inflation rising and growth plummeting. People need urgent help with rising food and energy bills, yet the Government simply doesn’t care.

Rise in faulty sewage monitors as water firms accused of “covering up environmental scandal”

  • Almost 2,300 sewage monitors found to be faulty – over one in six of all monitors
  • Number of sewage discharges potentially much higher than feared
  • Lib Dems accuse water companies of covering up environmental scandal by failing to fix monitors

New analysis by the Liberal Democrats has revealed water companies are failing to monitor hundreds of sewage discharges in coastlines and rivers.

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Caron Lindsay

Conference highlights horrific impact of cost of living crisis on women

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 5th February 2023 - 2:00 pm

This week a Conference organised by the Women’s Budgeting Groups in all 4 nations of the UK looked at the specific and disproportionate impact of the cost of living crisis on women.

Women were described as the “shock absorbers of poverty” as evidence showed how they often went without essentials, including food, in order to lessen the impact of soaring prices on their families.

We heard some harrowing accounts of the toll this takes on women’s physical and mental health.

Steffan Evans,  from the Bevan Foundation in Wales, described the results of YouGov polling they had commissioned to try to understand the impact. The number of people cutting back on food had gone up from a bad enough 26% in July to 39% in January.

The impact was worse amongst households on benefits, renters, lone parents, households with children and disabled people.

He expressed concern about impact of withdrawal of Government support in April.

He also highlighted the impact on long term health  of living with no heating and condensation and mould.

He concluded that we need to fix the system, not ameliorate with short term cash payments

Next up was Dr Laura Robertson, from the Poverty Alliance who talked about the research carried out in Scotland by the Scottish Women’s Budgeting Group.

They interviewed 30 women from a range of backgrounds who were on low income and conducted a diary exercise with 8 women who submitted weekly diaries.

They found deepening experience of destitution and poverty, of people going hungry and cold

Rural households dependent on oil and households on prepayment meters were struggling most with energy costs

Mothers mentioned struggling to provide nappies, formula, clothes and  school uniform for their children and said that school holidays were really difficult.

There was a negative impact on physical and mental health, increased isolation as they couldn’t afford leisure activities, guilt, shame and stigma of not being able to afford basics.

Coping strategies shared by women to manage rising costs include extreme cuts to household expenditure – skipping meals, looking for discounted items in supermarkets, cutting back on energy use –  including heating and turning off fridge and freezer, stopping social activities.

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The Voice

Government blocks Wera Hobhouse’s Bill to stop prepayment meters

By The Voice | Sun 5th February 2023 - 1:30 pm

One of the many scandals of the cost of living crisis is the forced installation of prepayment meters. Energy companies raking in massive profits are compelling their poorest consumers to paying the highest rates. The BBC highlighted the heartless attitudes behind such practices in a report this week.

While Wera Hobhouse enjoyed the success of getting her Bill aimed at tackling sexual harassment in the workplace through its Commons stages this week, she was disappointed when the Government blocked her attempt to stop the forced installation of prepayment meters.

Here she is on Newsnight talking about why they are so bad:

Wera’s …

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Mark Valladares

2 February 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 2nd February 2023 - 11:50 pm
  • Shell Profits: Sunak has failed to take action with a proper Windfall Tax
  • Lib Dem Bill to ban prepayment meters seeks to protect vulnerable from exploitation
  • Interest rates: A hammer blow and the blame lies squarely with the Government

Shell Profits: Sunak has failed to take action with a proper Windfall Tax

Responding the energy giant Shell making record profits of over £68 billion in 2022, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey MP said:

No company should be making these kind of outrageous profits out of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukra ine.

Rishi Sunak was warned as chancellor and now as Prime Minister that we need a

…

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Mark Valladares

Rishi Sunak’s first 100 days have left typical family £1,200 poorer

By Mark Valladares | Thu 2nd February 2023 - 7:30 am

A typical family has been left almost £1,200 poorer in the 100 days since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister, new analysis by the Liberal Democrats has revealed.

The party warned that families across the country are suffering from the “cost of Conservative chaos”, as housing costs, taxes and rising energy and food bills all eat into their incomes.

The research shows that a typical squeezed middle household with a mortgage will have seen extra costs of £1,170 in the 100 days since Rishi Sunak became Prime Minister on 25th October. This is made up of £822 in extra mortgage interest payments, £132 …

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Mark Valladares

27 January 2023 – today’s press release

By Mark Valladares | Fri 27th January 2023 - 10:30 pm

Hunt’s speech is cold comfort for families and pensioners

Responding to Jeremy Hunt’s speech this morning, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

This Conservative party sounds like an unfaithful partner asking for yet another chance – but after crashing the economy and sending mortgages sky-high – why should we trust them again?

Jeremy Hunt’s speech is cold comfort for families and pensioners facing unbearable price rises.

This Government’s economic record is nothing less than a shambles and the British public will see right through this desperate attempt by yet another Conservative Chancellor to rewrite history.

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Mark Valladares

20-22 January 2023 – the weekend’s press releases (part 1)

By Mark Valladares | Mon 23rd January 2023 - 2:49 pm
  • Sunak fine: From partygate to seatbelt gate, Conservative politicians are taking British people for fools
  • Research reveals squeezed middle facing biggest income tax hit in a decade
  • Alarm as Number of Homeless Children in Wales Rises by 59%

Sunak fine: From partygate to seatbelt gate, Conservative politicians are taking British people for fools

Responding to the news that Rishi Sunak has been given a Fixed Penalty Notice for not wearing his seatbelt during a Lancashire visit, Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper MP said:

Rishi Sunak has shown the same disregard for the rules as Boris Johnson, and now becomes the second ever Prime Minister to be fined by the police.

From partygate to seatbelt gate, these Conservative politicians are just taking the British people for fools.

Whilst they continue to behave as though it’s one rule for them and another for everyone else, this fine is a reminder that the Conservatives eventually get their comeuppance.

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Mark Valladares

18 January 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 18th January 2023 - 10:30 pm
  • Inflation pushing families to the brink and economy to breaking point
  • Hunt video: Mr Bean-esque from the same clueless party that crashed the economy
  • Retained EU Law Bill a “shameless power-grab”

Inflation pushing families to the brink and economy to breaking point

Responding to the news that inflation remains in double digits at 10.5%, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

For months and months Inflation has soared pushing families to the brink, bills out of control and the economy to breaking point.

People across the country work hard and just want a fair deal but under this Conservative Government, double-digit inflation is just business as usual.

Struggling families and pensioners deserve more support but the Government’s track record on the cost of living crisis has been nothing short of a failure, hurting millions.

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Mark Valladares

17 January 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 17th January 2023 - 10:30 pm
  • ONS pay figures: Chancellors have fanned the flames of this cost of living crisis
  • Billions in taxes lost as HMRC moves staff to Brexit and Covid fraud

ONS pay figures: Chancellors have fanned the flames of this cost of living crisis

Responding to this morning’s latest ONS earnings and unemployment figures, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said:

Successive Conservative Chancellors have fanned the flames of this cost of living crisis. Their deeply shameful tax hikes and failure to grow the economy has lead to Britain’s pay being squeezed despite unbearably high bills. It has been an economic clown show from this Conservative

…

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Mark Valladares

16 January 2023 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Mon 16th January 2023 - 11:40 pm
  • It’s Blue Wall Monday and families are paying the price
  • PC David Carrick: Lib Dems call for immediate investigation

It’s Blue Wall Monday and families are paying the price

Today marks Blue Monday when Brits are left counting up their Christmas bills.

For families in the Blue Wall, there is an additional hit to their finances: The Conservative Government.

New analysis by the Liberal Democrats reveals the typical family in the South East will be £760 worse off this January compared to last year – including paying an extra £620 more a month in mortgage …

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Mark Valladares

18 November 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Fri 18th November 2022 - 10:45 pm
  • Squeezed middled pushed to the brink by Conservative’s Cost of Chaos budget
  • IFS analysis: Conservative ministers are economic vandals

Squeezed middled pushed to the brink by Conservative’s Cost of Chaos budget

In response to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s morning round following yesterday’s Autumn Statement, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said:

Struggling families who have worked hard for years have had their security stolen by this Conservative Government. While non-doms and big banks got off lightly, the already squeezed middle are being pushed to the brink.

Those working day-in, day-out are having to choose between food or heating, mortgage payments or fuel for

…

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Mark Valladares

17 November 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 17th November 2022 - 11:00 pm
  • Wales Ambulance Waiting Times – Emergency Lights Should be Flashing for Labour
  • Budget: Everyone being forced to pay the price for Conservative chaos
  • Cancer Treatment Waiting Times Intolerable
  • Conservative giveaway to big banks set to cost taxpayers £18 billion
  • 5 Hidden Horrors in the Autumn Statement

Wales Ambulance Waiting Times – Emergency Lights Should be Flashing for Labour

Responding to the news that Welsh ambulance response times have hit their slowest on record ever for red calls Jane Dodds MS said:

When someone is in a moment of crisis and chooses to call 999, they want to know that there will be someone at the other

…

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Mark Valladares

16 November 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Wed 16th November 2022 - 10:45 pm
  • Inflation stats: Families struggling to get by because of Government’s inaction and incompetence
  • Raab: Ethics advisor must be appointed to stop a whitewash report
  • Raab investigation: “another Conservative stitch up”

Inflation stats: Families struggling to get by because of Government’s inaction and incompetence

Responding to the latest ONS figures showing inflation has reached 11.1%, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney said:

This Government’s biggest economic failure has been their disastrous attempts to get inflation down. Families are now struggling to get by because of this Government’s inaction and incompetence on spiraling prices.

After inflicting so much chaos, the latest Conservative Chancellor is now expecting the public to clean up their mess with grossly unfair tax rises. Our crumbling hospitals and run down classrooms are on the brink of savage cuts all because the Conservative party crashed the economy to fund tax cuts for the richest companies. The country will never forgive them for this.

This week Jeremy Hunt should target the oil firms and banks making bumper profits to fill the blackhole in Britain’s finances, rather than inflicting more pain and misery on struggling households.

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Mark Valladares

11 November 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Fri 11th November 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • Welsh Liberal Democrats Statement for Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday
  • GDP stats: People will never forgive this Government for crashing our economy during a cost-of-living crisis
  • Conservative stealth cuts leave up to 110,000 children without a free lunch
  • Dominic Raab behaviour: Cabinet Office must investigate immediately

Welsh Liberal Democrats Statement for Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday

Commenting Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader Jane Dodds MS said:

Today and on Sunday we pay tribute to all who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our country during its darkest hours.

Their sacrifice has allowed us to live in a society based on both freedom and liberty.

Today we think of not only the lives that were lost, but of the wish of survivors of both World Wars that we should strive to build a world free of war and violence.

This year as we remember those who fought for freedom and liberty during previous conflicts, many of us will also be thinking of the brave men and women of Ukraine, who are at this very moment standing in face of tyranny with winter approaching.

We remain ever thankful to those who stood to protect our country. We will remember them.

GDP stats: People will never forgive this Government for crashing our economy during a cost-of-living crisis

Responding to the latest GDP figures which reveal the UK economy contracted 0.2% in the third quarter, marking the first step towards recession, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

Today’s figures show the Conservative Government is leaving our economy smaller and all of us poorer.

People will never forgive this Government for crashing our economy during a cost-of-living crisis and putting up their mortgages by hundreds of pounds a month. The Conservative party can never again claim that they are the party of sound money.

Ministers must now do whatever it takes to protect households from the economic downturn they have caused, starting with a mortgage protection fund to ensure nobody loses their home this winter.

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Mark Valladares

3 November 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Thu 3rd November 2022 - 10:30 pm
  • Bank of England rate rise: Chancellor must address the country
  • Asylum seekers abandoned – Braverman failing in her duty as Home Secretary
  • Elin Jones Wrong to Defend Mark Drakeford’s Qatar Trip Say Lib Dems
  • Number of GPs and GP Practices in Wales Fall
  • Interest rates: Chancellor must address the country with a plan to save homeowners
  • Davey: Recession warning a “badge of shame” for Rishi Sunak and Conservative government

Bank of England rate rise: Chancellor must address the country

Commenting ahead of today’s interest rate decision from the Bank of England, Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesperson Sarah Olney MP said:

The Chancellor must address the country immediately after the rate rise decision to spell out a plan to save homeowners on the brink. He should either come to Parliament or hold a press conference to announce support for families facing mortgage bill rises worth hundreds of pounds a month.

Hardworking families are being left to pay the price for weeks of Conservative chaos. People are desperately worried about how they are going to pay these frightening mortgage payments after tomorrow.

The Government cannot hide away, especially after their long list of economic failures.

Asylum seekers abandoned – Braverman failing in her duty as Home Secretary

The Liberal Democrats have warned that Home Secretary Suella Braverman is “failing in her duty” as Home Secretary, after reports asylum seekers have been left stranded in central London by the Home Office.

It comes after Robert Jenrick emphasised last night on ITV’s Peston that the Home Secretary has a duty not to release asylum seekers into destitution.

Suella Braverman also assured Parliament on Monday that she had refused to release people into local communities “without having anywhere for them to stay”.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Alistair Carmichael said:

Asylum seekers being abandoned with no place to stay in central London is the most blatant sign that the system is completely broken.

Suella Braverman is failing in her basic duty as Home Secretary. She needs to urgently explain how this has been allowed to happen, despite the assurances given to Parliament earlier this week.

It’s intolerable that vulnerable people are being left without help because of the endless chaos and incompetence of this government.

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Mark Valladares

18 October 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 18th October 2022 - 11:40 pm
  • Triple lock: Truss looks set to betray struggling pensioners in the middle of a cost of living crisis
  • Lib Dem Amendment Put to Vote to End Sleaze in Parliament
  • Anti-sleaze amendment passed to stop MPs “marking their own homework”
  • Calls for Action as Drug-Related Deaths in Wales Rise to Highest Level Ever
  • Welsh Government Must Act to Stop the Brain Drain of Doctors in Wales

Triple lock: Truss looks set to betray struggling pensioners in the middle of a cost of living crisis

Responding to the Prime Minister’s spokesperson refusing to say the Government is committed to the triple lock pension, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Work and Pensions Wendy Chamberlain MP said:

Liz Truss has trashed the economy and now looks set to betray struggling pensioners in the middle of a cost of living crisis.

This Conservative Government’s botched budget has already sent mortgage bills spiralling. It would be a kick in the teeth for millions of people if Truss now backtracks on her triple lock promise. The British public will never forgive the Conservative party if they break this promise.

This chaotic Government has to go. Britain needs a general election before Liz Truss and her Conservative Ministers do anymore damage.

Lib Dem Amendment Put to Vote to End Sleaze in Parliament

The Liberal Democrats have today led a cross-party Parliamentary effort to finally end the practice by which MPs are allowed to vote on motions regarding their own misconduct.

The Lib Dem Chief Whip Wendy Chamberlain is today putting an amendment to a vote on the Government’s motion on standards, which the Government has tabled to implement recommendations from the Standards Committee, later this afternoon.

This practice was notoriously brought to attention by the Owen Paterson scandal, when he voted against his own suspension from the House of Commons in 2021 – a saga which ultimately resulted in a Liberal Democrat victory in the North Shropshire by-election.

The amendments, which have support from Conservatives (David Mundell, Alicia Kearns), Labour (Kim Leadbeater, Cat Smith) and the Green Party (Caroline Lucas), would prohibit members from voting on anything concerning their own conduct.

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Truss car crash interviews on BBC local radio on cost of living and fracking

By Andy Boddington | Thu 29th September 2022 - 1:33 pm

Having absented herself from the media for days, the prime minister chose to defend her decisions and Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget on BBC local radio. Truss appeared on breakfast shows on BBC Radio Leeds, Norfolk, Kent, Lancashire, Nottingham, Tees, Bristol and Stoke. Her media advisers clearly thought local radio would be a soft touch with presenters more used to talking about a church fete. So very wrong. The interviews were sometimes excruciating. You could hear pauses at times, as she struggled to find her scripted reply and to remember which radio station was interviewing her.

First up for the prime minister was an interview with on BBC Radio Leeds. As the first of the day, it wasn’t so much of a car crash for Truss as the later interviews.

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NewsHound

Davey: Truss must cancel Tory conference to deal with economic crisis

By NewsHound | Thu 29th September 2022 - 8:56 am

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has called on Liz Truss to cancel the Conservative party conference which begins this weekend, and instead recall parliament to vote to fix the disastrous mini-budget. Lib Dems are also calling on the government to bring forward a rescue package for homeowners unable to pay higher mortgage bills as a result of last week’s budget.

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Caron Lindsay

Life resumes…..

By Caron Lindsay | Tue 20th September 2022 - 6:57 am

It’s been an intense 11 days  since the Queen died.

For many people, a national bereavement takes a similar pattern to any other. The adrenaline gets you through to the funeral and it’s only afterwards that you have to adjust to the loss and its consequences. However we may feel about Queen Elizabeth’s legacy or, indeed, the institution of monarchy itself, it will take some time to get used to the new normal, not least because we have a brand new monarch and a brand new Government.

Anyone under the age of about 75 will not be able to remember having any other monarch than Queen Elizabeth. It’s  astonishing that we have had two Queens, covering 134 of the last 185 years. Both reigned during periods of intense social and economic change. I was thinking about this yesterday  as I woke up and looked up exactly how long they had been on the throne. Victoria had been on the throne for 63 years, 7 months and 2 days – and Elizabeth for 70 years, 7 months and 2 days. In all the wall to wall coverage I’ve absorbed since 8th September, I hadn’t heard that mentioned. Or maybe I’m the only one that finds it worthy of note.

We haven’t in any sort of memory had a new Head of State and Prime Minister in such quick succession. Elizabeth had wartime giant Winston Churchill as her first PM. When George V died, Stanley Baldwin was on his third prime ministerial stint. The last liberal Prime Minister, Asquith, had a couple of years under his belt before Edward VII died and Viscount Melbourne was extremely experienced when the 19 year old Victoria acceded.

The new King Charles has had decades to learn his trade and he has acknowledged that he can’t be as vocal on issues close to his heart as he was as Prince of Wales. A climate change denying Government is bound to be a test.

The cost of living emergency has not gone away. It is biting the most vulnerable every single day.  Inflation may have dipped a tiny bit down to 9.9% in August but households are still finding that the basics in life are a lot more expensive than they were last year before you even think about heating your house.

The last big political announcement was Liz Truss’s plan to deal with meteoric energy price rises. She intends to limit price rise so that the average household will pay no more than £2500. It’s likely you will pay more if you live in an energy inefficient, damp house. That includes many people on low incomes in private lets and social housing.

Ed Davey called Truss’s plan a “phony freeze” saying:

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George Cunningham

A special Lib Dem Winter Crisis Conference

By George Cunningham | Thu 15th September 2022 - 8:50 am

We are most likely heading into a bleak winter. The UK is in dire shape – the loss of our Queen, a lacklustre government, the economic downturn, energy and cost of living crises, strikes, ongoing Brexit consequences – maybe even the return of some COVID variant. Public support for Ukraine under these difficult circumstances must also be maintained.

This is the moment for the Lib Dems to show Britain that we have policies to deal with these critical issues. The answer could be a Special Lib Dem Conference on the Winter Crisis, as permitted by our constitution, to be held in November, just at the onset of winter, in substitution for our lost Autumn Conference.

The Federal Board and Federal Conference Committee rightly decided that the Autumn Conference could not go ahead at a time the country was in mourning. But what was unexpected was a single all-encompassing decision to completely cancel the conference rather than reschedule.

We cannot be absent ourselves from the political scene at this critical moment. The two main parties are proceeding with their conferences. The Trade Unions have postponed and will have theirs later. The FCC suggested that our parliamentary spokespersons could cover this off. But we need to take decisions and only the party membership can authorise policy through a fully-fledged decision-taking conference.

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Caron Lindsay

“Phony Freeze” – Ed Davey calls out Government as bills double from last year

By Caron Lindsay | Thu 8th September 2022 - 12:59 pm

Ed Davey has accused the Conservatives of bringing in a “phony freeze” on energy bills, after it emerged the average family will see their heating costs almost double this winter compared to last year.

Here he is challenging the Prime Minister:

Under the plans set out by Liz Truss today, energy costs will be capped at £2,500 a year for the average home, almost double the £1,277 the cap was set at last October. It is also an increase of over £500 on the current price cap.

Liberal Democrats were the first to call for energy bills to be properly frozen by keeping the current cap in place, funded by a tougher windfall tax on the record profits of oil and gas companies.

Ed said:

This phony freeze will still leave struggling families and pensioners facing impossible choices this winter as energy bills almost double.

Liz Truss and the Conservatives are choosing to allow this huge hike to people’s heating costs, while refusing to properly tax the eye-watering profits of oil and gas companies.

This is a deliberate choice and it is the wrong one. People are furious that once again the Conservatives are on the side of oil and gas giants making record profits rather than families struggling to make ends meet.

The point about a cap being funded at least in part by a windfall tax is an important one. Why should huge energy companies get an unexpected £170 billion bonanza and not have to contribute at all, yet a household on the average wage gets a huge hike in their bills this Winter?

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Mark Valladares

6 September 2022 – today’s press releases

By Mark Valladares | Tue 6th September 2022 - 11:15 pm
  • Davey: Make energy bosses pay for freezing of bills, not our children
  • Truss Speech: Only way to end crisis is to get the Conservatives out of power
  • Chope appointment to Partygate inquiry – government backs down

Davey: Make energy bosses pay for freezing of bills, not our children

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has warned that Liz Truss’ plan to make taxpayers pay for the freezing of energy bills would “make our children pick up the tab”, while letting the oil and gas companies raking in record profits off the hook.

It comes as the Liberal Democrat Leader introduces legislation in Parliament today to bring in a tougher windfall tax on companies like BP and Shell that are raking in huge profits, to fund the freezing of energy bills.

The proposed Liberal Democrat Bill would prohibit Ofgem from increasing the energy price cap above its current level in October, funded by extending and backdating the windfall tax. It also calls for small businesses to be supported with their bills, paid for by reversing Conservative tax breaks for banks.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

Liz Truss spent weeks during this summer leadership contest leaving families and pensioners worried and in limbo by refusing to set out her plans to tackle soaring energy bills. Now she seems set to make our children pick up the tab for this mess, while letting oil and gas firms making record profits off the hook.

It shows Liz Truss and the Conservatives are completely out of touch with the British people.

The Liberal Democrats have today tabled legislation to protect people and businesses from sky-high heating bills this winter. This would be paid for by a tougher windfall tax on oil and gas companies and the scrapping of Conservative tax cuts for big banks.

That would be a much fairer and more responsible way to tackle rising energy bills than even more borrowing for taxpayers to pay back in the future.

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The Voice

Daisy Cooper slams Truss speech and Ed Davey calls for General Election

By The Voice | Tue 6th September 2022 - 8:04 pm

Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper has absolutely slammed Liz Truss’s speech on the steps of Number 10.

It did nothing, she said, for the business owners who were scared that they might have to close their businesses in days if not weeks.

She criticised the reported Truss plan on energy bills, saying that she should pay for it by taxing the energy companies’ massive profits rather than through general taxation.

Ed Davey was up early this morning. A friend of mine on Twitter saw him keeping warm with a Pret coffee. He explained to BBC Breakfast why the Government should tax energy firms:

 

Ed also called for a General Election to get the Tories out of power once and for all:

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