Thursday, July 14, 2022
The unspoken crisis in the Tory Leadership race
The most striking part of the current Tory leadership contest is how disconneected the candidates are from the concerns of ordinary voters. That is partly the result of them speaking to a select electorate, and a privileged one at that, but it does not bode well for us, whoever ends up in 10 Downing Street. The Independent illustrates this with a specific example.
They quote Martin Lewis, founder of MoneysavingExpert.com, who says Tory leadership candidates are “ignoring” the winter fuel crisis and should set out how they would help families and businesses. He warned that the energy crisis was “potentially more dangerous to lives than the pandemic” and the country could face “cataclysmic” problems this winter:
The consumer expert condemned the MPs running in the Tory leadership contest for their “deafening silence” on how they would tackle the energy crisis on becoming prime minister in the autumn.
Many of the candidates in the race to replace Boris Johnson in Number 10 have promised to cut fuel duty if elected, however, they are yet to set out a detailed plan of how they would tackle the cost of living crisis.
Now, more than 40 charities and campaign groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and Fuel Poverty Action have written to each candidate calling on them to detail how they would “keep people safe and warm this winter”.
They are concerned key decisions on the cost of living crisis will be delayed until the new leader is elected in the autumn after the prime minister said any new policies must wait until his successor is in place.
The groups are calling for the leadership hopefuls to draw up detailed policies as soon as possible so they can be implemented once they are elected.
In their letter, they warned the country is “headed into a potentially catastrophic winter”.
They wrote: “In eleven weeks’ time, more than a third of households - many millions of British families - may not be able to afford to heat their homes.
“Meanwhile, earlier this year, 2.3 million families on low income were going without enough food and were unable to keep their homes warm.
“In the words of Martin Lewis last week: ’millions of households will be forced into poverty unless we act. This is a genuine, urgent emergency’.”
Will this call to action wake up the remaining six candidates for Prime Minister. I think that is unlikely.
They quote Martin Lewis, founder of MoneysavingExpert.com, who says Tory leadership candidates are “ignoring” the winter fuel crisis and should set out how they would help families and businesses. He warned that the energy crisis was “potentially more dangerous to lives than the pandemic” and the country could face “cataclysmic” problems this winter:
The consumer expert condemned the MPs running in the Tory leadership contest for their “deafening silence” on how they would tackle the energy crisis on becoming prime minister in the autumn.
Many of the candidates in the race to replace Boris Johnson in Number 10 have promised to cut fuel duty if elected, however, they are yet to set out a detailed plan of how they would tackle the cost of living crisis.
Now, more than 40 charities and campaign groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and Fuel Poverty Action have written to each candidate calling on them to detail how they would “keep people safe and warm this winter”.
They are concerned key decisions on the cost of living crisis will be delayed until the new leader is elected in the autumn after the prime minister said any new policies must wait until his successor is in place.
The groups are calling for the leadership hopefuls to draw up detailed policies as soon as possible so they can be implemented once they are elected.
In their letter, they warned the country is “headed into a potentially catastrophic winter”.
They wrote: “In eleven weeks’ time, more than a third of households - many millions of British families - may not be able to afford to heat their homes.
“Meanwhile, earlier this year, 2.3 million families on low income were going without enough food and were unable to keep their homes warm.
“In the words of Martin Lewis last week: ’millions of households will be forced into poverty unless we act. This is a genuine, urgent emergency’.”
Will this call to action wake up the remaining six candidates for Prime Minister. I think that is unlikely.
