Last week, I welcomed Rishi Sunak to the De La Warr Pavilion to meet members of the local Conservative Party and the staff from the Pavilion. It was particularly fitting to host Rishi at the De La Warr. One of his pandemic funding programmes was aimed at protecting the nation’s cultural and artistic institutions from permanent closure. The Culture Recovery Fund provided the Pavilion with approximately £1 million. This was a lifeline and ensures that we still have our cultural jewel as a result.
In a nutshell, this rather sums up why Rishi is getting my support. In times of crisis, he has the track record and intelligence to devise and deliver targeted programmes of support. The furlough scheme, another of his pandemic programmes, ensured that over 11 million workers continued to get paid and were not laid off. He did likewise to ensure that businesses were given loans rather than plunged into bankruptcy.
Whilst we are out of the pandemic, we are in the midst of a cost of living challenge which is only going to get tougher as we move towards Autumn and Winter.
Earlier this year, when I was writing about the sanctions against Russia, I referenced that we would all be impacted when the action impacted commodity prices. This week, the sheer scale of this cost has been across the airwaves with predictions that the energy price cap could reach £4,500 per year for January. Earlier this year, the cap was £1,200. It’s already been raised to £2,000 and, later this month, we will find out where it will hit for the remainder of the year. Predictions are at the £3,000 mark.
As he did with the pandemic, Rishi acted as Chancellor to insulate those who are most vulnerable with £37 billion of support. This could mean up to £1,200 for some households. All pensioners will receive funding; vital given that many pensioners are on fixed incomes and tend to use more heat given time spent at home. It’s clear to me that we are going to need to add more support to those in need. This constituency has one of the highest proportion of pensioners and is in the top ten, of 650 constituencies, with the highest proportion of workers on the national living wage. These are the people who are on my mind when I decide which policies, and which contender, to support.
Liz Truss’ planned halt to the National Insurance rise, which itself was brought in to help increase funding to the NHS and Social Care, won’t help those who most need support with their energy bills. Pensioners don’t pay National Insurance, so will receive nothing. Rishi, as Chancellor, had already increased the thresholds when people pay National Insurance. As a result, the reversal in National Insurance delivers only £59 per year to those on the national living wage. This clearly won’t help the most vulnerable as their energy bills rise from £1,200 to £4,500 in a year. Interestingly, the reversal in the National Insurance increase delivers £1,600 for the annual salary of the next Prime Minister.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for lowering taxes and giving everyone more of their money back. That has to be the long-term plan. However, at this time, it cannot be right to hand out billions to those who can afford to pay their energy bills and deliver nothing further to those who cannot. Pensioners, and those on low incomes, must be the priority. Rishi is pledging to do more. If Liz Truss succeeds then I hope she will also make this her priority. To those who say we can deliver tax cuts and spend billions on helping the cost of living, just beware that this will cause inflation, and our bills, to rise even higher. The cost for servicing our huge debt, itself inflation-linked, rose to almost £20 billion in June alone. That’s about half of the annual Defence budget.
Tough choices lie ahead. I’m giving all of my support to Rishi Sunak because he has a track-record of delivering in tough times and channels it to those who need help the most. With a constituency where retirees and the lower paid are highly prevalent, I consider it my local duty to do so.
