Only a relentless focus on living standards can stem the tide of the populist right

As our new polling shows households are still trapped in a toxic living-standards hangover from the Tory years. Millions are being pushed into choices that nobody in a wealthy country should face. 

Millions more know that no matter how hard they work their pay packets just haven’t kept up with rising prices.

People who once had enough in their pockets to take the family out for a meal, or go on a nice holiday, are now left wondering why life is going getting harder not better.

Recent steps – like raising the minimum wage, cutting energy bills and scrapping the cruel two-child limit - are welcome. They matter. But we need more.

For too many people change still feels like a slogan and the thing that they want to see most of all now is their living standards improving. 

That means ministers showing they are laser-focused on driving down everyday costs and putting more money into people’s pockets. Nothing is more important.

Arguing that broken public services are part of the affordability crisis.

The public services people rely on have been pushed to breaking point. People want our country to work, for the bus to arrive when it says it will, for the library to be open when you need it, for the streets to be clean and parks maintained. It has a real effect on quality of life, and on how people feel in their communities.

Broken public services also have knock on costs, from work lost to sickness when millions are stuck on waiting lists, to underfunded schools not setting kids up for life.

Economic insecurity is draining people’s faith that mainstream politics can deliver change.

It is fuelling the rise of the bitter and nasty politics of the right, poisoning our national conversation and leaving Britain angrier, more anxious and more divided.

If this government wants to rebuild trust, then showing working people it’s on their side as it drives up living standards must be its top priority.

Because let’s be honest - Nigel Farage isn’t interested in making life more affordable for ordinary families. The only incomes he wants to make bigger are his own and those of his corporate donors. The interests of Thailand-based crypto investors are not the same as the British public.

Securing Royal Assent for the Employment Rights Act was a major milestone. But workers need to feel the benefits in their payslips and in their day-to-day lives - and they need to feel them fast.   

The timetable cannot slip. This package must come in on time, in full, and emerge watertight from the secondary-legislation process.

A half-baked ban on exploitative zero-hours contracts won’t give workers the security they need.    

Paltry fines for deep-pocketed companies that shut out trade unions won’t deter the likes of Amazon from union-busting.   

And failing to legislate beyond the Act – such as leaving worker status untouched - will simply allow rogue employers to keep running bogus self-employment schemes. If Labour wants to take on Reform, then economic security must be a key dividing line.

Some employers, particularly smaller employers, will worry about how they implement the Act. They will rightly want to see the detail and to understand the new legal framework.    

But my message to all employers  - large and small – is that we all have a responsibility to implement the government’s manifesto mandate to improve life at work for millions. And if we don’t meet that responsibility, we shouldn’t be surprised if the public gets even more disillusioned with our political process.