Angela Rayner is the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne, holding the seat since 2015. She is also the deputy leader of the Labour Party, while serving as Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work since 2021.
In this opinion piece, the MP shares her perspective with the Manchester Evening News on the cost-of-living crisis.
The cost-of-living crisis facing Britain is now a national emergency. All across the country, households and families face bills they simply cannot afford.
At a time like this, politicians have to say whose side they are on. Is it the millions of hard-working people and businesses of Greater Manchester dreading their next energy bill? Or is it the oil and gas giants making record profits from their misery?
I won’t forget the constituents I represent in Ashton who have told me of the dire straits they have been plunged into – those facing rent arrears and bailiffs due to being unable to the cover costs of energy bills or going without food just to make ends meet their mounting costs.
Labour will always put you first. That’s why under a Labour government, your energy bill wouldn’t go up by a penny this winter.
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It’s also why we are very clear about how this is being paid for, from a windfall tax on those enormous, unexpected profits. Because unlike the Tories, we won’t be making vast, unfunded promises that would make the current crisis worse.
With everyone feeling the hit, all households in Greater Manchester will get £1,000 off their bills because of Labour’s price cap freeze. And we’ll make sure that targeted extended support for those on universal credit, for pensioners and those with disabilities continues on top of that payment.
That means Labour’s fully-costed plan would get £39 million to homes in Bury North to ease bills, and £43 million to homes in Bolton West, for example. In fact, across Greater Manchester, people will feel the benefit of £1.2 billion from this energy price freeze.
This is a simple matter of fairness.
After all, in what world is it right that oil and gas companies are making record profits from the misery of ordinary households and businesses across the country? None of us have heard a decent answer to that question.
Not from the Prime Minister, who is missing in action. Nor from Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, caught like a pair of rabbits in the headlights.
Not even from the bosses of the oil companies themselves, who have previously said this sort of action wouldn’t deter them from future investment.
Of course, the Tories don’t like it. Because for all their talk, when it comes to the crunch, they always pick vested interests over working people. It’s a timely reminder that they might be about to get a new leader, but they are still the same bunch who have run our country into the ground over the last 12 years.
The truth is that by refusing to act they are choosing to protect the profits of the oil and gas firms. It’s the same thing they did for five months earlier this year, before they belatedly backed Labour’s plans.
Ensuring energy bills don’t go up will provide welcome relief to people across the country. But it’s only the first part of our much bigger plans to ensure bills come down in the long term as well.
As Keir Starmer announced a year ago, Labour will have a proper, national mission to insulate millions of homes and reduce the amount of energy we consume and get bills back under control. And then long term, our plans will ensure our country invests more in sustainable, British energy sources that mean we won’t have to rely on expensive fossil fuels imported from round the world.
It's a plan that would begin to build the stronger, more secure economy we need.
Everywhere you look – from bills to the NHS to crime – the Tories have lost control. Inevitably, it is working people that are paying the price for their failures.
Labour’s fully-funded, common sense ideas show what could be possible with a government focused on giving Britain the fresh start it deserves.
The Conservative Party's response...
Pressures created by global events including the rise in wholesale gas prices, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and the Covid pandemic have unavoidably caused a strain on the cost of living.
However, unlike the Conservatives, Labour have no plan to tackle the cost of living. They can’t be trusted on the economy and simply would not deliver on the people’s priorities.
Under Keir Starmer’s Labour households would be hit with an extra £2,138 to fund his party’s proposals. Their plan, including a green investment deal and scrapping business rates, amounts to more than £90 billion of annual spending promises which would require an extra £2,138 per household of general taxation.
The Conservatives are delivering the biggest net cut to personal taxes in over a quarter of a century – helping people keep more of their money, alongside our £37 billion package of support, including £1,200 for the lowest-income families – as part of our Plan for a Stronger Economy.
It is impossible for any government to solve every problem, but our priority is to help the millions of families who are struggling now as we secure long-term economic growth. Labour are continuously failing to put forward a plan for the British people to tackle the issues we face – instead they spend their time distracted by political game playing.
They flip-flopped throughout the coronavirus pandemic, they voted against funding for our NHS, they’re taking a soft approach to crime and they have no plan for the biggest issues the country faces such as tackling the cost of living. Only the Conservatives can get on with the job and deliver on the people’s priorities so we can build back better.
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