Boris Johnson too ‘mired in scandal’ over parties to solve cost of living crisis, says Labour’s Jon Ashworth

Labour’s shadow pensions secretary Jonathan Ashworth, has told GB News that the Government have no plan to deal with the cost-of-living crisis because “they’re just mired in all these scandals about parties and the rest of it.”

Mr Ashworth told Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster on GB News, that Labour are worried about what is happening with the cost of living.

“You’ve got energy bills rocketing, prices going up in the shops, the Bank of England saying it’s the biggest squeeze on incomes for 30 years”, he told viewers on GB News.

Criticising Boris Johnson he said the Prime Minister is asking MPs to endorse plans to “give pensioners a real terms cut in the value of their pensions”, but suggested it would be hard to vote the measures down because otherwise “pensioners wouldn’t get anything.”

Mr Ashworth went on to say pensioners were being faced with impossible choices “between heating and eating.. not going for showers, not using the oven.”

He said Labour would put forward a plan to remove VAT from fuel bills – a campaign which is widely supported, including by GB News’ Liam Halligan – to support pensioners who “have given so much to our country”, telling the GB News audience that Boris Johnson’s plans would impoverish pensioners.

Wider afield, a plan to tackle the NHS backlog has reportedly been delayed after an announcement due to be made today had been delayed.

The multi-billion pound “National Recovery Plan” had reportedly been blocked by the Treasury, reported The Telegraph.