ast Friday morning, a group of Tory advisers, including Boris Johnson’s new deputy chief of staff, David Canzini, held a meeting at Conservative party headquarters to discuss political strategy. A self-styled hard man who uses the name @DCGrumpy on Twitter, Canzini was one of those brought in to Downing Street a few weeks ago to sort the place out after “partygate”, and resurrect Johnson’s fortunes.
But – despite its enthusiastic initial reception by Conservative MPs in the chamber – within hours of Sunak sitting down, it was clear the statement had bombed, both in the party and out in the country. Johnson, on the other hand, is said to have wanted more help for people with their mounting energy bills. But Sunak wanted to hold down spending in order to cut taxes closer to a general election, and stood firm to his own plan.
Political motives were clearly at play. In an attempt to appease Tory MPs who accuse him of being a high-tax chancellor, Sunak held back about £20bn of cash in his war chest for a 1p income tax cut – but not until 2024, the probable year of the next general election. One such red wall seat is West Bromwich East, now held by Conservative MP Nicola Richards, having before been a Labour stronghold. The constituency contains some of the poorest communities in the UK.
He says it is not just food bank users who are feeling the pressure caused by rising prices – but those who run them, too. His team of about eight volunteers take donations from the local community, but nowadays they are not enough and they have to supplement them by buying in additional supplies. “When things are going up by 30p each, it doesn’t sound much on each individual item but it adds up to a significant extra cost to us,” says Turner.
“I’m lucky that I can work and my mum can look after the kids but everything is so hard with only one income. There’s a lot of talk about looking after ‘hardworking families’ but you just know they don’t mean my kind of family, because if they did, there’d be more support.
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