KATE OSBORNE: No word on how Government is to lead us out of this mess

So many people are struggling financially after a hugely difficult 18 months and they now head into these difficult winter months wondering how they are going to cope with rising inflation, food price hikes, benefit cuts and soaring energy bills which are hitting everyone hard.

Problems with a lack of lorry drivers, petrol shortages and gaps in supermarket shelves are disrupting people’s lives. It’s holding back businesses and leaving families stretched without the things they need to buy.

Because of this widespread disruption and rising inflation, fuel and food prices are going up and up. Soon, energy bills will rise again. Shortly after that, will be another hit from an increase in National Insurance and Council Tax.

We’re facing major labour and skills shortages that will make disruption worse. We’re not able to hire people into the right jobs or keep them there because pay and conditions are poor. This is creating a perfect storm and we must get a grip of it.

Boris Johnson is completely out of touch with the strain on people’s lives.

Instead of dealing with these problems, the Prime Minister has staggeringly put the “out of office” signs on his Downing Street door and jetted off for a week-long holiday to Marbella.

Johnson’s timing is astonishing, and doing so right now, confirms so many people’s view that he lacks the hunger and ability to put other people first.

On top of the rises in Council Tax and National Insurance, many working people have been hit further by the devastating cuts to Universal Credit. We’re faced with a Prime Minister that would rather tell cheap jokes than take action and tackle problems hitting so many of the British public on a daily basis.

Ministers have buried their heads in the sand for weeks by saying supply chain problems didn’t exist. Now they expect us to believe this was their grand plan all along: that they strategised for fuel shortages and sparser supermarket shelves. They know their claim on rising wages is a shambles, because for the vast majority of workers who are in insecure work and zero-hour contracts there are no pay rises, while prices continue to spiral.

It’s Conservative choices over their decade-plus time in power that have led to low wages and poor conditions. They could improve work and pay overnight if they wanted to. No fuel - blame the public. Empty supermarket shelves - blame businesses. Labour shortages - blame the workers. It’s always someone else’s fault and never the fault of the Tories.

There has been no top-level summit led by the PM and no explanation to the country as to how his Government intends to lead us out of this mess.

Instead of running the country, the Conservatives are running it down into the ground.