Labour launched an all-out assault on Conservatives this weekend over the falling living standards for middle income earners.

What’s interesting is partly that rather than focusing on how the budget deficit would be reduced, where Labour still have a problem with their narrative, it focuses on how the government’s actions are ‘squeezing the middle’.

Curious too, that News International continue to lead on this attack, offering considerable space to Ed Balls.

In an interview with the Sunday Times yesterday, Ed Balls warned of Britain’s “cost of living crisis,” and demanded that George Osborne reverse the VAT increase.

Filling up a family car now costs £65-£75. World oil prices are already very high, and the chancellor has chosen, at this very moment, to raise fuel prices further, by pushing up Vat. I am urging him to reverse that increase.
…
Osborne will say that he can’t make these sorts of decisions outside the Budget, but he recently announced a new bank tax at 7.22am on the [BBC Radio 4 ]Today programme. If he can have a mini-budget for banks, he can have a mini-budget for motorists.

On the Politics Show at lunchtime yesterday, Ed Balls said the same thing:

I think he should say now to families who are having a tough time across the country ‘actually the VAT rise on fuel was a mistake’. I think he should do it before the Budget, he should say I will reverse that now. He can think about duty when he gets to the Budget. As you know when we were in government we often didn’t put the duty rise through if the oil price was high. That’s a budget decision but he could reverse the VAT thing now and give relief to families and hauliers all around the country. I think it would be a really good way to show he was in touch and to get out of his bunker.

And today Ed Balls is in the Sun newspaper pretty much saying the same thing. Repetition is key.

Ed Miliband is also on the attack, but with a slightly different pitch focusing on living standards in general rather than just on the fuel VAT rise.

He has been “love-bombing” middle-income earners today, says Sky News.

He was on BBC Breakfast this morning, and a speech later today to the Resolution Foundation later today will be more nuanced – focusing on lower and middle income earners.

He will say:

There is now a very real risk that we will see the longer-term pressure on wages for those on middle and low incomes colliding with rising prices, tax and benefit changes introduced by this Tory-led government and public service cuts which all hit families with children the hardest.

My fear for those on middle and low incomes is that more and more families will face a cost of living crisis that will see them left behind, even as the economy eventually recovers.

The failure of the government is two-fold: they are not taking steps to build a different kind of economy, and they are hitting lower and middle-income families hardest in the way they are cutting the deficit.

Looks like Ed Miliband will take a more proactive role in criticising the government from now.

Reader comments

1. Liberal Conspiracy

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2. Lauren G

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3. sunny hundal

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4. Chris Paul

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5. Jane Phillips

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6. WestMonster

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7. Nick H.

   RT @sunny_hundal: News International offer Labour column inches to assault Tories over falling living standards http://bit.ly/ighsOR

8. annpettifor

   RT @sunny_hundal: News International offer Labour column inches to assault Tories over falling living standards http://bit.ly/ighsOR

9. Sue Marsh

   News International use Labour to assault Tories | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/MKDyWBL via @libcon

10. Eoin Clarke

    RT @suey2y: News International use Labour to assault Tories | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/MKDyWBL via @libcon

11. Chai and News

    News International use Labour to assault Tories | Liberal Conspiracy: Curious too, that News International conti… http://bit.ly/fGHpqm