MP Ian Lavery column: People are worried sick about keeping up with their bills

Millions of people are still struggling to heat their homes, as the cost of living crisis rages on.

The advert from Age UK was quite simple, it showed an elderly lady sitting alone in her house and you can see her breath due to the cold inside. She is on the phone and explains that she worried as she is not sure what to do as she can’t afford to put the heating on.

The advert particularly struck me because I know just how common this is. We have people of all ages and stripes around our communities simply unable to put both food on the table and to heat their homes.

Many of these people are pensioners retired after a lifetime of work or are in full-time employment wondering how they will afford the basics such as school uniforms and the correct shoes for their children to go to school in.

No matter how distracted the political class stuck in their Westminster bubble may be, this is what people are talking about in our communities. While Northumberland does not have any elections this week I have been out supporting Labour candidates across the North East region, knocking on doors and talking to people on the street about their views and concerns.

Time and time again I am confronted by people worried sick about how they are going to keep up with the bills, which seem to pile higher and higher each month. They look around and see next to no support coming from the government while reading the news about gas and oil giants posting record profits month after month.

It seems we lurch from crisis to crisis and each time, the ordinary hard working man and woman lose out. But what each crisis has in common, from the handling of the pandemic, the handling of our withdrawal from the EU, the cost of living crisis, the massive wave of strike action across the country and many others, is that the Conservative Party are in charge making each one worse than it has to be.

Whatever happens in the future, if we want to be a success and rebuild this country for the better it must be an absolute priority to get this Conservative government out of power as soon as possible.