This week's MP's column comes from Imran Hussain, Labour MP for Bradford East

The Spring Statement was an opportunity for Chancellor Rishi Sunak (pictured left) to cast a life vest toward ordinary people grappling with the cost-of-living crisis.

Bradford families were already set to see the cost of their energy bills, gas and food shopping dramatically rise this year, but now, faced with soaring inflation that the Government has failed to keep in check, prices are out of control.

With the scale of this crisis worsening by the day, there are three simple, yet vital measures the Government should have taken to ease the suffering of communities in Bradford and throughout the country.

Firstly, scrap the National Insurance Hike. The regressive rise in National Insurance will hit thousands of workers up and down the country in their wallets, with the average family set to lose £500 a year.

This is a tax grab that many simply cannot afford, and at a time of massive inflation, the Government should be boosting workers’ income and purchasing power, rather than reducing it.

Secondly, bring back the Universal Credit uplift. The Government must bring back the uplift that was introduced at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. Universal Credit payments do not provide claimants with enough to get by and with the onset of this social emergency, the Government would do well to take heed of this crucial lesson by reintroducing the £1,000 a year uplift.

With inflation sitting at the highest level in 30 years, the Chancellor is imposing brutal real terms cut on claimants. As millions face sleepless nights, wrestling with impossible choices between heating or eating, the Government should increase benefits in line with inflation, alongside reinstating the uplift.

And thirdly, pay for a reduction in bills with a Windfall Tax on energy profits. Despite the guff from Tory Ministers about protecting cash strapped energy companies, it is these multi-billion-pound mega-corporations who are cashing in on the misery caused by soaring bills.

Giving the energy cartel free rein to gouge ordinary people, despite profits so obscene that BP’s Chief has gloated the company is a “cash machine” – is nothing short of a disgrace.

Through funding a cut in household bills with a Windfall Tax on the bumper profits of these energy giants, the Government could soften the blow of this crisis by shifting the burden of price rises onto those with the broadest shoulders.

The Spring Statement was miles wide of the mark, it might be known as the mini-budget but at a time of National Crisis, the Chancellor’s plans amount to shuffling the deckchairs on a sinking ship.

Meagre, token offerings such as increasing the threshold for National Insurance and lowering fuel duty were nothing but artful deception from a Chancer Chancellor.

But no amount of sleight of hand can cover up for the fact that the average family is set to be £1,000 a year worse. A significant shortfall for those already on the breadline, and one which will plunge 1.3 million people, including 500,000 children into absolute poverty.

You wouldn’t have gleaned any of this from the Chancellor’s personal appraisal though as he dubbed the statement as “progressive” before bemoaning the naivety of his numerous critics.

The Chancellor is living on another planet.

Indeed, in a now viral clip, his behaviour resembled an alien with a bizarre to watch, botched attempt to pay up after a photo-op at a petrol station.

It is this detachment from ordinary life as a millionaire married to a billionaire which sees the Chancellor, who just last month gifted his banker mates a billion-pound tax cut, then claim with a straight face that his hands are tied when hiking taxes on your family.

It should be noted however, that detachment is not ignorance.

The explosion in energy poverty, hunger, and destitution that shows no sign of stopping are all the result of the priorities and resultant political choices from the political elite determined to protect the pockets of a wealthy few at the expense of the 99%.

Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak and all the rest of them have access to, and knowledge of the reports which show the impact their policies will have on our communities.

The truth is, they just don’t care.