ANDY Burnham has been urged to work faster on tackling the rising UK cost of living crisis, with the SNP saying that people are now “hundreds of pounds worse off” than before Labour came to power.
In his inaugural Cabinet meeting, Andy Burnham told ministers they would be a “cost-of-living Government” and announced plans to cut VAT on electricity bills.
However, Kirsty Blackman, the MP for Aberdeen North, said that Burnham’s plan would “only save average households about £3 a month, when energy bills are £600 higher than the Labour Party promised during the election”.
"That's barely enough to buy a pack of baked beans or a tin of Spam – let alone take any meaningful pressure off of household spending," she added.
Before coming to power in 2024, Labour under Keir Starmer pledged to cut the average energy bill by £300. However, the energy price cap has risen from £1568 in July 2024 to £1862 this July.
The SNP also pointed to concerns around an increase in average UK mortgage rates, which rose again this week.
The average rate on a new two-year fixed rate mortgage deal is now 5.59%, according to financial information service Moneyfacts, while the average rate on a five-year fixed deal is 5.61%. The Bank of England has projected that over five million homeowners should expect their monthly mortgage repayments to increase by the end of 2028.
At the same time, oil prices hit $100 a barrel for the first time since May on Thursday amid the ongoing US-Israeli war on Iran, stoking fears of higher UK inflation and a lower likelihood of Bank of England interest rate cuts.
Blackman, the SNP’s economy spokesperson at Westminster, said: "The news that UK mortgage rates and oil prices are rising again will pile more painful costs and pressure onto families, who are already struggling to get by in Broken Brexit Britain.
"Andy Burnham must go much further and faster to help households with the soaring cost of living in the UK, and to reverse the damage done under the Labour Government, which has left many people hundreds of pounds worse off.
"Families in Scotland will get no meaningful benefit from the changes announced so far, which are far too small to make a real difference."
She went on: "Under the Labour Government, many families are living payday-to-payday, the number of people in poverty has risen by half a million and UK unemployment has increased to a five-year high. People are really struggling and we need to see much bolder action to ensure people are better off – not hundreds of pounds worse off.
"Scotland is an energy-rich country – and we should be reaping the benefits of our huge energy wealth but instead the UK Government has syphoned it off to Westminster and has left Scottish families paying some of the highest bills in Europe. It shows why real change can only come with independence."
Following the first face-to-face meeting between the Prime Minister and First Minister John Swinney on Thursday, a Downing Street spokesman said: “The Prime Minister stated up front that another referendum on independence was off limits because it would take our focus away from growing the economy and helping families with the cost of living.”
