Red Wall seats in Yorkshire among most exposed to cost-of-living crisis

The Centre for Progressive Policy said the three local authority areas - which all saw Conservative MPs elected in previously Labour-held seats in 2019 - are among the top 20 places in the country due to be worst affected by rising prices.

Hull, which has no Conservative MPs, is second in the national list - with Middlesbrough top.

The rankings are based on a system called the ‘Cost of Living Vulnerability Index’ which assess factors such as the local prevalence of fuel poverty, economic inactivity and low pay.

Nationally, 16 out of the 31 (52 per cent) local authority areas set to be worst hit by the cost of living crisis contain Red Wall seats.

The thinktank identifies local authorities as part of the Red Wall if they contain most of the population of a constituency in the North or Midlands that went from Labour to Tory in or since the 2019 election.

Ben Franklin, Director at CPP, said: “Voters on low pay, experiencing food and fuel poverty or pushed out of work altogether, are on the margins of extreme vulnerability - but they are also in many of our most marginal seats. That adds political saliency to the urgent moral case for addressing the cost of living crisis.

“Levelling up slogans will be dead on arrival at the next election unless the Government reconsiders its policy options.

“Last month’s Spring Statement saw poorly targeted tinkering at the edges of the tax system, whereas our analysis suggests the Chancellor may be forced to reconsider a UC uplift to really help those hit hardest in places like Hartlepool and Hastings.”

The report follows the Office for Budget Responsibility stating that the next 12 months will see biggest fall in living standards since records began in the mid-1950s.

Lisa Nandy MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, said: “This new research reveals the inadequacy of the Government’s response to the cost-of-living crisis facing families. We need to get money back into people’s pockets.

“Many of the places being hit hardest are in the North and Midlands. This is the opposite of levelling up. You can only level up if people have money to spend in their local communities.”

Boris Johnson defends Government's approach

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said the Government is providing £22bn worth of support to help mitigate cost-of-living increases.

He said: “People obviously are going to face choices that they’re going to have to make but we in the Government will do everything that we can to help.

“That’s what we’re doing. And the most important – there’s a couple things you can do as a Government, you can help support people through the investments we are making, the £22 billion, whether it’s supporting people to meet the energy costs, cutting fuel, duty, all that kind of thing.

“But the most important thing is to have a strong robust economy in which you have a high level of security in your employment, in which people know that there’s a long-term plan to deliver jobs and growth.

“And one of the most remarkable things about the performance of the UK economy since the Covid pandemic began has been the way we’ve bounced back.

“People were predicting 14 per cent unemployment around about now – we’ve actually got unemployment back down to the low levels it was before the pandemic began, record job vacancies, almost record-low youth unemployment.”

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