By Amanda Thorley

The ongoing cost of living crisis has seen workers forced to endure plummeting living standards for several consecutive years, the likes of which have not been seen since the Napoleonic Wars. On the surface, there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel under Labour – unless we fight back.

This year, workers have been impacted by a raft of increasing prices, with the cost of almost every imaginable daily essential rising. Earlier this year, inflation hit 3%, exceeding forecasts. Food staples such as meat, eggs, butter and cereal are all more expensive than last year, and a December 2024 report from The Joseph Rowntree Foundation found that a shocking 7 million low-income households were regularly going without essentials, with 5.4 million having recently experienced food insecurity.

The Trussell Trust estimates that one in seven people are facing hunger – an appalling statistic for Britain today. And shockingly, things are set to get even worse, with modelling by the British Retail Consortium forecasting a 4.2% rise in food prices in the latter half of 2025.

Food is far from the only essential getting even more expensive. Train fares, already extortionate and among the most expensive in Europe, have already gone up by an inflation-busting 4.6%, despite shambolic services plagued by record numbers of delays and cancellations.

Perhaps the biggest gut-punch for working-class people is the hike in energy. Already crippling for many families, bills went up by a whopping 6.4% on 1 April as Ofgem raised the price cap, leaving the average household with an eye-watering bill of £1,849 a year! This is a rise so steep that many more workers will find themselves forced to choose between heating and eating.

Clearly, a working class fightback based on mass struggle is necessary.

We say:

• A new left party of struggle is more urgently needed than ever before, to oppose the Tories, Reform UK and Starmer’s right-wing ‘Labour’ Party.
• Trade unions must take up the fight! We need militant action for above-inflation pay rises, with pay linked to inflation.
• Nationalise the utilities and public services under democratic workers’ control. Take the money out the pockets of private companies, investing it into crumbling infrastructure and green technology.