The numbers came out quietly, the way bad numbers usually do. 63% of Britons say they have cut back on essentials in order to handle rising prices. Not luxuries. Not nice-to-haves. Essentials. Food. Heating. Children's clothes. Two thirds of the country, in 2026, after eighteen months of Labour government, are reducing what they spend on the things they actually need to live. This is not the cost of living crisis Labour inherited. This is the cost of living crisis Labour has perpetuated.

Inflation Is Back Up

Inflation rose to 3.3% in March — a 0.3 point increase that broke the slow, painful downward trend of the previous months. The Bank of England's path to 2% has stalled. Energy prices, food prices, and services inflation are all stickier than the Treasury hoped. The household basket that cost £2,000 a month in 2021 now costs roughly £2,450 to £2,500. That is an extra £5,400 to £6,000 a year, gone, before a single discretionary penny is spent. Wages have not kept pace. Working families are quite literally going backwards.

Rachel Reeves likes to talk about "tough decisions." Working people don't get the luxury of describing their decisions as tough. They just have to make them. Skip the heating, or skip the takeaway? Cut the kids' clubs, or cut the food shop? Two-thirds of the country are now answering questions like that every week.

The Stealth Tax Squeeze

And it gets worse. The personal income tax threshold has been frozen at £12,570 since 2021. It will stay frozen until at least 2028, with a further extension to 2031 widely expected. National Insurance thresholds are also frozen. As nominal pay rises with inflation, more workers are dragged into the income tax net, and many existing taxpayers are dragged into higher bands. This is fiscal drag — what economists call a stealth tax. The Treasury is collecting tens of billions of additional pounds it never had to legislate for, on the backs of workers whose real-terms income is falling.

If a Conservative government had presided over this, Labour would have called it a betrayal. They would have been right. Labour, in office, has continued the freeze and quietly extended it. They have raised employer National Insurance, which is wage growth's natural enemy. They have raised vehicle excise duty. They have introduced the AIM inheritance tax raid, which is hammering British savers. Every single one of these is a tax rise on working Britain — and every single one was either denied or downplayed at the election.

Labour Promised the Opposite

Look back at Labour's 2024 manifesto and the gap between rhetoric and reality is breathtaking. They were elected on a platform of "fixing the foundations" and easing pressure on household budgets. Eighteen months in, household budgets are tighter than they were under the Conservatives. Real wages are growing more slowly than they did under the Conservatives. Inflation is no longer falling. The cost of an annual energy bill is still vastly above pre-2022 levels, even after the recent cap reduction.

The polling reflects this. Sir Keir Starmer's approval ratings are at historic lows for any post-war Prime Minister at the eighteen-month mark. Voters do not blame him for inheriting a difficult economy. They blame him for being honest about the inheritance and dishonest about his fixes.

What Reform UK Would Do

Reform UK would attack the cost of living crisis on three fronts. First, raise the personal allowance from £12,570 to £20,000, taking millions of low-paid workers out of income tax altogether and giving every basic rate taxpayer hundreds of pounds back. Second, cut the cost of energy by reissuing North Sea licences, scrapping the Net Zero levies inflating bills, and committing to a sensible mix of nuclear and gas. Third, get rid of the stealth tax thresholds — index personal allowances and NI thresholds to inflation, so that fiscal drag stops being a hidden government revenue stream.

Cut taxes for working people. Cut the cost of energy. Cut the unaccountable quangos that are draining the Exchequer. That is how you ease the pressure on a household budget. Not by raising taxes by stealth and then briefing the press that the recovery is "on track."