Mike Amesbury: 'Out of touch Rishi Sunak doesn’t understand challenges of everyday people'

His spring statement showed he is completely out of touch but it’s no surprise given he’s a multi-millionaire and married to a billionaire.

Did you see his disastrous PR attempt to look ordinary when he had to borrow a family car to fill up at the petrol station and then didn’t seem to know how to use a contactless card?!

He was trying to garner publicity for his five pence per litre cut in fuel duty but anyone who runs a vehicle will tell you prices have massively outstripped that token gesture.

His budget has done virtually nothing for struggling families during this cost of living crisis.

The Resolution Foundation think tank predicts 1.3 million people will be dragged into absolute poverty. That’s kids going to school with hungry bellies.

In today’s broken Britain we see many people reliant on benefits – not only those looking for work or unable to work due to disability or illness – but those in jobs on low pay. Yet benefits are going up by just 3.1 per cent when prices are rising by 8.2 per cent.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has been strongly criticised for his spring statement - Aaron Chown/PA

Door knocking in my constituency, I met a single mum who cares for her seriously disabled daughter while trying to keep a roof over their head. Like everyone on Universal Credit, she is having to make ends meet despite a £20 per week cut amounting to £1,000 a year.

She’s worried sick about how she will pay her electric bill, gas bill, water rates, rent and the rest.

Labour would have halted the National Insurance hike, boosted UK green energy through investment in renewables and given people a genuine discount, worth up to £600, on their energy bills – not the £200 loan the Chancellor has imposed.

It would have been funded through a windfall tax on those North Sea oil and gas producers making record profits.

Despite all the smoke and mirrors, taxes are at a 70-year high and we have the biggest drop in living standards since records began. Sadly, there will be even greater use of food banks in my constituency and beyond. 

That’s why the Chancellor’s promise of a one pence reduction in income tax in two years’ time is not only the wrong priority but extremely cynical coming just before the expected date of the next election.