THE cost-of-living crisis is getting worse and worse. The Conservatives are utterly failing to get a grip on falling living standards and we are all paying the price. New figures this week from the Office of National Statistics reveal that real wages are falling at their fastest rate in a decade. The average worker in Watford has suffered a reduction of £725 in wages in the past 12 months alone.

As a result of rising prices and wages not keeping up with the eye-watering cost-of-living, working people are resorting to charities and food banks to feed their families. They are filling the huge void that the Conservative Government has created. But now, those providing food to the food banks are themselves struggling.

The price of gas, electricity, petrol, food and cooking oil are all on the up and up. Inflation is over nine per cent - the worst since Thatcher 40 years ago. Once again, we are all suffering thanks to the Conservatives.

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And who is going to sort this out? Is it Dean Russell, our present MP? Unlikely, given his words in Parliament, where he found it easy to criticise the strikers. He is paid over £84,000 a year as compared to the railway cleaners, on the front line who clear up sick and all sorts for a mere pittance.

Real wages in Watford are tumbling and every single one of us is feeling the pinch. Labour has a plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis – we’d take real action to help businesses, bring down energy bills and get the economy moving again.

The Conservatives are mired in scandal and out of touch. They deserve to be out of office.

  • Cllr Asif Khan is chairman of Watford Labour Party