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Andy Burnham backs campaign with ‘five demands’ to fight cost of living crisis
The campaign is fighting for lower energy bills and higher wages
Andy Burnham has become the latest political figure to back a new campaign fighting the cost of living crisis.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester has put his support behind the growing Enough is Enough movement, the Guardian reports, which is said to be planning dozens of rallies in protest of soaring costs.
The Enough is Enough campaign was set up by trade union and community organisation leaders in a bid to ‘push back against the misery forced on millions by rising bills, low wages, food poverty, shoddy housing and a society run only for a wealthy elite’.
The campaign has five demands:
- A real pay rise.
- Slash energy bills.
- End food poverty.
- Decent homes for all.
- Tax the rich.
These demands include the energy price cap being cut to the pre-April level of £1,277 a year, a real-terms public sector pay rise, a reverse to the national insurance hike, and a £20-a-week universal credit increase.
The RMT Union leader Mick Lynch said of the campaign he is leading: “People are fed up with the way they are treated at work, we need to turn that mood into real organisation on behalf of the working class.
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“We can’t be divided. We need everybody campaigning for a better deal.”
Enough is Enough is planning fifty rallies in the next month after the expected announcement on Friday of a rise in the energy price cap to £3,553 a year, which is forecast to increase further to £4,500 in January.
Another campaign called Don’t Pay UK is organising a mass cancellation of energy direct debits from October 1st in a similar protest against the cost of living crisis.
The group says that if even a fraction of the million that they want on board agree to stop paying their energy bills, they will be able to bring companies to the negotiating table.
Andy Burnham will speak at the Enough is Enough rally at Manchester Cathedral next week on Tuesday August 30th.
Find more information on the rally here.