David Cameron lives in fear of UKIP and in denial of the cost of living

Speaking at the launch of the Tories’ local election campaign today, David Cameron reminded me of George W. Bush prematurely unfurling the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner, willingly disregarding the real world where huge challenges remain. The truth is the Conservatives’ economic victory lap only goes to show just how out of touch they are with hard-working people’s lives.

These elections are not just a choice between candidates but a contest about the future of the country for the Britain’s families. It’s about who our country is run for. As his speech today showed, David Cameron does not have the answers to the challenges our country faces.

Britain is suffering a cost of living crisis. Working people are £1,600 a year worse off. Family energy bills have been allowed to rise by almost £300 since the election. Households will be £974 a year worse off by the time of the next General Election because of tax and benefit changes since 2010.  This demands real help now and long-term changes to our economy.  But the Conservatives’ launch showed they are obsessing about UKIP and Europe rather raising living standards for British families.

The Tories claim to have a long-term economic plan but, as today showed, in fact cannot look beyond the latest set of UKIP polling numbers. Their policy on Europe amounts to a ‘closed for business’ sign raised above the UK.

David Cameron cannot run these elections on a programme of promises delivered because those made in 2010 have been broken. Under the Tories we have had the slowest recovery for 100 years, breaking their pledge to balance the books by 2015 and borrowing £190 billion more than planned – and nearly 900,000 young people are still unemployed.

David Cameron today asked, “judge me by my record as prime minister” – and we will. Cameron’s Britain is one where past securities over work, home ownership or young people’s opportunities are distant memories. And it is one where the Government stands up for just a privileged few.

The top one per cent of earners have been given a £3 billion tax break while the costs of family essentials soar. Bank bonuses rose by 83% last year while small businesses are still struggling to get bank finance.

In response to Labour’s plans to give tenants a fair deal the Tories sided with vested interests in industry – just as they did when Ed Miliband proposed freezing energy bills. The Tories said being on the side of Generation Rent was tantamount to “Venezuelan-style rent control”, just as they denounced the energy price freeze as “Marxist” before offering a false alternative. It was left to the Economist this week denounce the Tories’ response as “so hilariously over the top it reads like a parody”.

In the same way the Tories refuse to stand up to rip-off energy firms or the banks that are paying big bonuses whilst refusing to support the real economy, now they refuse to help hard-pressed families who rent a home.

The damage of his Government’s decisions is increasingly clear in communities up and down the country.  In our cherished and vital NHS, for example, waiting lists are up, it’s harder to get a GP appointment, vital services are being cut back and treatments are being rationed. Thousands of nurses and frontline staff have been lost while there’s a crisis in A&E. David Cameron wasted £3 billion and caused chaos with a damaging reorganisation he promised wouldn’t happen that has left nearly 4,000 NHS managers being laid off and rehired.

You can’t trust David Cameron with the NHS – and you can’t trust him with Britain’s future.

Ed Miliband yesterday unveiled Labour’s 10 point cost of living contract with the British people. The contract outlines the priority action Labour would take in power. This includes making work pay for parents with 25 hours free childcare for three and four year-olds; banning exploitative zero-hour contracts to increase security and fairness in the workplace; moving people from benefits in to work with a job guarantee for the young unemployed and more apprenticeships; and backing small businesses by cutting business rates and reforming the banks.

The crisis in living standards facing Britain is about more than the pound in your pocket today or tomorrow, but about the long-term future of our country and the ability of lower and middle classes to get on the housing ladder, save for a pension, support children through university and have opportunities in work. The link between national prosperity and family finances has been broken under David Cameron, Ed Miliband will restore it to bring prosperity for the many.

David Cameron thinks it’s ‘job done’ on the economy and is in complete denial on the challenges people are facing. While the country is engulfed in the cost-of-living crisis and crying out for action, Cameron – in fear of Ukip – deployed his Chief Strategist, the cigarette lobbyist Lynton Crosby, to tell the Tories that they must bang on about Europe some more. All of which leaves Cameron looking more and more out of touch by the day.