Christmas misery as more than one third say they will spend less

Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Budget slammed on GB News

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A new poll has revealed that more than a third (36 percent) of people surveyed will be spending less this year at Christmas as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite. The findings by Techne UK in polling for Express.co.uk come as the government still struggles to deal with inflation and is facing a winter of discontent with strikes by public sector workers seeking higher pay.

According to the polling the worst hit are people on low incomes with 50 percent saying they will be cutting back on spending this festive period.

Pensioners, who had their triple lock gurantee on the pension protected by Mr Hunt after a campaign by the Daily Express, are among the least likely to spend less this Yule tide with 29 percent of 65-year-olds and over saying they will make cutbacks.

But four in 10 of people aged between 45 and 64 are set to spend less this Christmas as their finances are frozen.

The financial probelsm for individuals and households have come as Britain tries to pay off its massive covid debt caused by two years of lockdown.

The economic crisis has also caused double digit inflation which saw Chancellor Jeremy Hunt use his Autumn statement to cut public spending and to increase a range of taxes leaving people even worse off.

This morning on the Sophie Ridge Sky News politics program, former Chancellor now Tory party chairman Nadhim Zahawi defended the measures brought in by Mr Hunt to tackle the cost of living crisis.

He agreed with Ms Ridge that many people are “talking about surviving” with their incomes “not embedding inflation”.

He said: “That is why the Chancellor came to the despatch box and delivered a £150 billion energy package. 

“That is the equivalent of the whole of the NHS to support people’s households otherwise energy bills would have spiked, to support businesses, as well as the money we are putting in to help the 8 million most vulnerable households is significant.

On the strike threats he said that the Government had accepted the pay review bodies recommendations but appeared to suggest that giving nurses, firefighters and others a pay rise might be giving in to Putin.

He said: “We have to come together, this is not a time to be divided, I hope send a very clear message to Mr Putin that he can’t use energy as a weapon in this way, which is why we have accepted the pay review bodies’ recommednations on nurses and schools.”

Ms Ridge suggested: “I guess a nurse on 20 grand a year you would think that there are other ways of sending Putin a clear message on Ukraine rather than give them a real terms pay cut.”

But Mr Zahawi came back: “I accept how hard things ar at the moment but this is not a time to go for a 19 percent pay rise.”

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Meanwhile, in an interview with the BBC this morning, actress Kate Winslet talked about how she had helped a family with the cost of living.

She spoke to Laura Kuenssberg about reading of a woman called Carolynne Hunter who was going to have to put her severely disabled child into care because she could not afford to pay her bills.

The Oscar-winning actress said: “It absolutely destroyed me. I just thought ‘on what planet is anyone going to let that happen?’ This is completely wrong.”

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