Government cost-of-living response “nothing short of insulting”, says Reeves

Rachel Reeves has strongly criticised the response from the government to the rapidly rising cost of living as “nothing short of insulting” and urged ministers to back the Labour Party’s call for an emergency budget.

Labour highlighted several “insulting” comments made by Tory ministers about the cost of living including those made by Boris Johnson, who responded to the story of a 77-year-old who rides the bus all day to keep warm by saying he had introduced free bus passes for pensioners.

The Shadow Chancellor said: “The response by the Conservatives to the cost-of-living crisis has been nothing short of insulting. They are out of touch and out of ideas.

“People are worried about paying their bills and ministers are seriously suggesting the answer is dodgy loans and Tesco value. The Conservatives are living on another planet.

“Hard-pressed Brits need support. We need an emergency budget now, with action to bring down bills by up to £600 with a windfall tax on oil and gas producer profits. A vote for Labour on Thursday is a vote to send the Tories a message they can’t ignore. Britain deserves better.”

During an appearance on Good Morning Britain on Tuesday, the Prime Minister was challenged by presenter Susanna Reid about the case of Elsie, a 77-year-old who eats one meal a day due to rising costs and rides the bus all day to avoid paying to heat her home.

Asked what else Elsie should cut back on, Johnson responded: “I just want to remind you, the 24-hour freedom bus pass was something I introduced,” to which Reid replied: “So Elsie should be grateful to you for her bus pass?”

Labour also highlighted comments from George Eustice, who suggested that consumers could deal with rising food prices by choosing supermarket own-brand items.

The Environment Secretary told Sky News today: “Generally speaking, what people find is by going for some of the value brands rather than own-branded products – they can actually contain and manage their household budget.”

He said there is a “lot of competition” to keep prices for “lower-cost, everyday value items” down because of the “very, very competitive retail market” of ten big supermarkets with “four main ones competing very aggressively”.

The opposition party also criticised Rishi Sunak for saying it would be “silly” to provide more support with rising energy bills in the immediate term before knowing what will happen to prices later in the year.

Asked whether the government would offer more support, the Chancellor said: “Depending on what happens to bills then, of course, if we need to act and provide support for people, we will.

“But it would be silly to do that now or last month or the month before when we don’t know exactly what the situation in the autumn will be.”

Labour has called for an emergency budget to respond to the worsening cost-of-living crisis. Announcing the proposal, Keir Starmer said Labour’s plan outlines “sensible, costed, practical measures that would give immediate help to working people” and stressed that “now is the time to act”.

Labour’s proposals prioritise cutting domestic energy bills, reducing business rates and scrapping the National Insurance rise, as well as speeding up efforts to improve home insulation and commissioning the National Crime Agency to recover money lost through fraud.