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The Russian invasion of Ukraine: Considerable rise of the cost of living in Britain
While the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson was on his sudden visit to Ukraine and announcing more military and financial support for Ukraine, the British people are suffering a jump in prices and exponentially higher cost of living. During his meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Boris Johnson has ensured further economic aid and the guarantee of the amount of £770 million as a loan. He also said, "We are stepping up our own military and economic support and convening a global alliance to bring this tragedy to an end".
On the other hand, some economic experts expected that the average British household will reach around £2,550 fall in income during this year. Moreover, such experience has already been seen in the rise of prices in petrol stations and supermarkets across the UK, besides the inflation in the British economic sector and reached 6%.
Despite the fact that the UK's dependence on Russian imports of gas which is only 4%, the conservative government of Boris Johnson has increased the prices of gas and electricity by 54%. For instance, British people will pay £1,971 per year instead of £1,277 for the energy price as 85 percent of British homes are powered by gas boilers. In other words, such conservative policies will extremely push more than 20 million households into fuel poverty. Eventually, such a sharp jump in energy prices has affected the daily standing life and cost of living for the UK residents as Chancellor Rishi Sunak has already declared the increase of the national insurance threshold.
At the first glance, Boris Johnson's squeeze policy continued toward the majority of British people even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine despite the limited trading between UK and Russia. As a result of the Russian-Ukraine war, the UK's cost of living has become worse and the impact of the war has become a fact as millions of British people are now threatened with a deep crisis regarding the financial situation in particular the poorest households in the UK. That means further pressure on the daily cost of living and more pressure on energy, taxes and food prices simultaneously with the inflation that will hit the UK economy due to the 12 year of Tory government since 2010. Britons are likely, for example, to face higher jumps in prices due to the Russian-Ukraine war. Such hits in prices will also affect the bread price as Ukraine and Russia consider almost a third of global exports of wheat. That means, from now, people in the UK have to choose between eating or heating which consequently will impact the social security system across the UK.
BY: Zara Saleh
