As inflation spirals and pushes up the cost of a weekly shop, we will use an opposition day debate in Parliament today to urge the government to focus its efforts on fixing the increasing squeeze on households rather than saving the Prime Minister’s job.

Our motion will note MPs’ concerns over “households bracing themselves for the biggest drop in living standards in thirty years; that the cost of living crisis includes steep price increases in everyday and essential food items, making the situation worse for the 4.7 million adults and 2.5 million children already living in food insecurity and risking more people experiencing food insecurity.

The Tory Government is making the cost of living crisis worse through tax hikes, low growth, falling real wages, and a failure to tackle the energy crisis and we will urge ministers to set out a national strategy for food, including how it intends to ensure access to high quality, sustainable, affordable food for all and meet the United Nations goal to end hunger by 2030.

This comes as millions feel the crunch across Britain, with families facing hiked taxes, soaring energy bills and rising inflation. 

Thanks to the abject failure of the Conservative government, far too many working families are trapped on low wages with little financial wriggle room.  

At a time when inflation is spiralling, the government should be ensuring people across the country are able to buy healthy and good quality food. This can only be achieved by taking a responsible, strategic approach to this complex and increasingly important issue.

Labour’s plan to keep bills low would cut £200 off most household energy bills, with £600 in total going to those households who need it most – cancelling out almost the entire rise in energy prices.

The next Labour government would support British business to bolster sustainability and affordability of good quality food as part of our contract to deliver security, prosperity and respect for the British people.

For many, the situation could not be starker:

• Foodbank demand has increased by 128% in five years, with more than 2.5 million emergency food parcels distributed by the Trussell Trust alone in 2020/21 – up by nearly a million since only 2018/19
  https://www.trusselltrust.org/2021/04/22/record-2-5-million-food-parcels-distributed-last-year/

• Research by the charity Turn2us has found that almost half of adults on Universal Credit or Tax Credits say the £20-a-week cut means they will struggle to afford food
  https://www.turn2us.org.uk/About-Us/News/Latest-research-on-Universal-Credit-cut

• In December 2021 we ran a survey of our members demonstrating the impact of the cut to Universal Credit in October 2021. You can read a summary of these findings here. https://www.foodaidnetwork.org.uk/ifan-data-since-covid-19

• In the year to December 2021, 37 of 45 staple food and non-alcohol items in the ONS long-term price survey had gone up
  https://news.sky.com/story/cost-of-living-which-foods-are-driving-the-increase-in-inflation-according-to-the-latest-data-12519716]

• The Food Foundation has found price rises for all the major food categories they monitored, with pasta up 26.3% in a year.  In just one month between November and December onions were up 5.1% and canned tomatoes up 2.2%
  https://foodfoundation.org.uk/news/food-prices-tracking-january-update