THE Tory government may try to “cynically use the war in Ukraine as cover” for their own failure, pinning the cost-of-living crisis on Vladimir Putin’s invasion, it has been warned.
The warnings come from senior figures in the SNP, following on from one issued by money-saving expert Martin Lewis last week.
Lewis (below) told BBC Radio 4: "We are seeing what may be potentially a deliberate narrative shift that effectively says the entire cost-of-living crisis is due to Ukraine and therefore we all need to make sacrifices and that is not correct.”
He added: “What has happened in Ukraine has exacerbated the situation. But the rises in energy heating oil, water, council tax, broadband and mobiles, food, National Insurance, were all in place before Ukraine.
"We are going to see a real increase in genuine poverty in this country.”
Lewis said that "genuine political intervention", not further belt-tightening, was needed to address the crisis.
The warnings were echoed by the SNP’s shadow chancellor Alison Thewliss, who also called for a package of measures to be brought in by Rishi Sunak’s Treasury.
These should include a Real Living Wage and grants instead of energy “loans” which Westminster is to hand to every UK citizen, before making them pay it back over five years.
Thewliss said: “The UK Government cannot be allowed to hide behind the war in Ukraine as an excuse for the spiralling Tory cost-of-living crisis, when for many months the SNP has warned that families are struggling.
“This Tory crisis has been a decade in the making. Rishi Sunak must not cynically use the war in Ukraine as cover for years of Tory failure. With every day the UK Government fails to use its reserved powers to tackle the cost of living, it is demonstrating that independence is the only way for Scotland to boost incomes and build a fairer society.”
Ian Blackford, the SNP’s leader at Westminster, added: “Families need urgent help - not more excuses.
“[Thewliss] is right to say the Chancellor must not use Ukraine as an excuse for years of Tory failure and inaction on the economy.”
The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates again on Thursday, but faces an intensifying dilemma as the Ukraine conflict poses a twin threat to inflation and economic growth.
Experts now predict inflation could sail past the Bank’s 7.25% prediction to above 8% in April – or even double digits – as the Ukraine crisis and sanctions imposed on Russia send fuel and energy prices rocketing even higher.
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