Scots shopping basket snapshot shows price of essentials up 19%

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The Scottish and Westminster governments face urgent calls to combat the cost of living crisis that threatens to force many into poverty.

The Daily Record spoke to shoppers who unanimously believe that supermarket price rises are going off the scale.Our snapshot shop of 15 items at one supermarket today revealed a 19 per cent leap on prices for identical goods last January.

The hardship is being felt by shoppers at most supermarkets, particularly those with families to support, as wages stagnate and all costs are spiralling upwards fast.

Scottish Labour’s public finance spokesperson Paul Sweeney will use today’s Holyrood debate on the Scottish budget to demand better wages for low paid public sector workers to counter the emerging crisis.He said: “In the debate on the budget I’ll be calling on the Scottish Government to go much further in its pay deals with its own public sector workers, especially in low-paid sectors like social care, and are going to be hardest hit by recent price spikes.“They also need to reverse the decade of disproportionate cuts to local councils, so that food poverty initiatives are properly resourced.”Sweeney also calls for the UK government to raise the minimum wage to a proper living wage of £15 an hour, along with a raise to the level of Statutory Sick Pay.He said: “This would enable greater trade union organisation to bargain for higher wages across the economy, especially for those on the lowest incomes.”He claimed that shopping price rises are a hammer blow, saying: ”With inflation now well over 5 per cent - the highest level in 30 years - the biggest driver of that spike in prices has been food and non-alcoholic drinks.“These are essential items, so those on those on the lowest incomes