FORMER MP Faisal Rashid is urging the people of Warrington to stick together and look out for each other as the town “faces the gravest cost of living crisis” since the end of the Second World War.
Mr Rashid believes the town will be feeling the effects of the current crisis for two years or more and is calling on people to be good neighbours and keep an eye on the old and vulnerable.
He wants people to show the same community spirit he witnessed as Mayor of Warrington in 2016-17 and to keep making generous donations of essential items – such as tinned food, toiletries and cleaning products – to the town’s foodbank.
“I cannot bear the thought of parents having to choose between heating and eating,” said Mr Rashid, who is the chair of the Warrington South Constituency Labour Party.
“Warrington Foodbank and their band of volunteers do an amazing job. Many of the town’s supermarkets have collection points or donation stations and I urge people to donate if they possibly can.
“It is just heart-breaking that foodbanks are needed at all and it is a national disgrace that there are now more foodbanks than branches of McDonald’s.”
Mr Rashid was speaking after it was announced that the cap on gas and electric bills will rise by an unprecedented £693 – 54 per cent – to an average of £1,971 on April 1 and that the Bank of England had doubled its benchmark interest rate to 0.5 per cent, making mortgages more expensive for millions of borrowers.
“People in Warrington have already seen their shopping bills rise alarmingly and inflation is predicted to go up even further to seven per cent by April,” he added. “The UK economy is the fifth biggest in the world and this should not be happening.”
Mr Rashid, who was the Labour MP for Warrington South from 2017 to 2019, called for the £20 uplift in Universal Credit to be restored and for the five per cent VAT rate on energy bills to be scrapped.
“Poor people have suffered the most during the coronavirus pandemic because of the jobs they do,” said Mr Rashid. “They need our help to get through this cost of living crisis.
“Quite rightly VAT is not charged on food and babywear and children’s clothes so why is it charged on gas and electricity? Fuel poverty is a real and growing problem in this country and I urge the government to recognise that and do more to help.”
Warrington Foodbank’s website – warrington.foodbank.org.uk – can be consulted for an up-to-date list of items that are urgently needed by families and individuals in need.
