New Living Standards Labour Group Wants To Create Cost Of Living Policies With Cut Through
Labour MP Graeme Downie said the Living Standards Group would seek to shape government policy. (Alamy)
3 min read
Members of the new Living Standards Group of Labour MPs told PoliticsHome they will "bring some ideas from the outside" to help the government's bid to tackle the cost of living.
The caucus, made up of 104 Labour MPs from across the party, wants ministers to put a greater focus on helping people with everyday costs like food, childcare and energy.
It comes amid concern among backbenchers that the government's emphasis on economic growth, while important, is communicated in language that is hard for people to relate to.
In a letter to Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Wednesday, first reported by The Guardian, the group said: “Our constituents will ask one question at the next election: did this Labour government make me better off?”
Eight MPs elected at last year's general election are leading the Living Standards Group.
One of them is Graeme Downie, the MP for Dunfermline and Dollar, who said that the group was born out of informal conversations that "three or four" of them were having about ways of tackling the cost of living that would "cut through" with the public.
"It is one of those areas where there's commonality across the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] about that mission being at the centre of what the government is trying to do."
Downie said the group also planned to produce "policy proposals" from "different places" in the PLP, drawing from the "broad church" of Labour MPs in the group.
"It may well be that there's different groups within the within that wider group that will want to focus on different things — whether it's on housing, energy, different ways to tackle different bills that people face — to come up with solutions that really try and bring down that cost living, and tackle it in a meaningful way," said Downie.
Rachel Blake, the MP for Cities of London and Westminster, is another member of the new Labour intake who is leading the group.
She told PoliticsHome that the group wanted to help translate Prime Minister Keir Starmer's "really strong commitment" on economic growth into tangible positive change for voters.
"What's interesting is that when one of my constituents saw the letter, and saw the work that we were doing on this topic, he got in touch to say: 'I'm so, so happy to see you're focusing on this; we were talking about this just a few weeks ago on my doorstep'.
"It's the kind of thing that consistently comes up for us when we're out speaking to our constituents across what are a whole range of different places."
The other lead organisers are MPs Andrew Lewin, Chris Curtis, Lola McEvoy, Luke Murphy, Yuan Yang and the group's convenor, Dr Jeevun Sandher.
Downie said Downing Street had expressed "no concerns" about the group's formation, telling PoliticsHome that it hopes to have a "good relationship" with the government.
"We've kept them aware that we've been pulling this group together for a number of weeks now.
"I wouldn't like to put words in their mouth... But certainly we've had no concerns."
Downie and Blake said that the cost of living would go a long way to determining the outcome of the next general election and will be key to Labour's effort to fight off the threat of Nigel Farage's Reform UK.
"In the US, they talk a lot about gas and groceries. That's where elections are won and lost. I think that's similar in the UK. It's the prices you see day in day out: petrol prices, food prices, energy prices," said Downie.
