One year on from the Tories’ disastrous mini-budget, new analysis I’ve done, building on a StepChange survey for BBC Money Box, reveals a staggering 82,000 adults in Cumbria are forced to cut back on essentials like heating and electricity to keep up with debt repayments. Over 135,000 are in financial difficulty, and 51,000 have changed their diet to less healthy options to save cash.
This is the result of the Conservatives’ cost of living crisis. After the 13 years of failed Tory rule people in Cumbria are worse off than they have been in years. Last year the Conservatives crashed the economy – and the rest of us are still paying the price.
One in five are now forced to ration essentials to pay the bills – a third say they are in financial difficulty, and one in eight can’t afford to eat as healthily as they would like. This is the reality of what the Tories have done to our community. Low growth, stagnant wages, failing public services, and ever rising taxes. Yet Rishi Sunak had nothing to say about the cost of living in his speech to his party conference this week. It is time for a change.
Labour has a plan for Cumbria and the whole country. We would get the British economy moving again – we will make it a central mission of the next government to deliver the highest sustained growth in the G7, we will provide stability not the chaos of recent years, and through our Green Prosperity Plan we will help create good new jobs in Cumbria.
Josh MacAlister MP 