Boris Johnson has been urged by Conservative MPs and peers to address what they say will be a “cost of living crisis for many” in 2022. In a letter on Sunday, the 20 parliamentarians said rising energy prices would pose more of a problem for consumers in the UK than in other comparable countries and that the government should cut VAT on fuel bills, and remove environmental levies on energy, to ease the burden on families. The letter was published as a poll of voters in the “red wall” seats that the Tories gained in the 2019 election showed support for Johnson and his party plummeting amid concern that family finances are going to get worse over the coming year. With energy bills rising, tax increases due to take effect in April and inflation on the rise, the cost of living is set to be one of the dominant political issues of 2022. Last week the Resolution Foundation thinktank said costs for average households could rise by £1,200. In their letter to the Sunday Telegraph, organised by Craig Mackinlay, who chairs the Conservative Net Zero Scrutiny group, the MPs and peers say that when the energy price cap is reassessed in April “the likelihood is that domestic tariffs will increase hugely, feeding directly into a cost of living crisis for many and pushing them into what is bluntly called ‘fuel poverty’”.
They say that, although energy prices are rising internationally, UK government policies have exacerbated the problem for consumers. “We have almost uniquely caused our energy prices, through taxation and environmental levies, to increase faster than those of any other competitive country,” they write. The signatories, who include Steve Baker and David Jones, both former Brexit ministers, Esther McVey, the former work and pensions secretary, and Lord Lilley, a cabinet minister in the 1990s, say removing VAT on fuel bills would be a “step in the right direction” and that getting rid of environmental levies on energy would cut fuel bills by 23%. In an article for the Mail on Sunday, the Conservative MP Lee Anderson, who won Ashfield from Labour at the last election, says his voters care about rising energy bills far more than they do about “platitudes spouted about the ‘green agenda’”. Anderson’s article was published alongside the results of a Deltapoll survey of people living in the 57 seats gained by the Conservatives at the last election, suggesting that Labour is now on 49% in these constituencies and the Tories on just 33%. The same poll suggests that, across Britain as a whole, Labour is on 40% and the Conservatives 35%. Deltapoll said if these results were replicated at a general election Johnson would lose more than 100 seats.
The survey asked more detailed questions of voters living in the “red wall” seats gained by Johnson in 2019, suggesting that 40% of them think their household finances are in a worse state since the Tories came to power, against only 12% who say they are better off. Over the coming year 41% expect to be worse off, and 16% better off. By a margin of two to one, voters in these seats do not think Johnson is doing well, the poll suggests, and only a quarter of them think he will still be prime minister this time next year. These voters also think the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, would be a better prime minister (38%) than Johnson (33%), the poll suggests. And, when asked for their preferred team, 40% opt for Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, while just 33% choose Johnson and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor.