A majority of Britons fear the energy and cost of living crisis will end with people unable to heat their homes in winter dying and riots on the streets.
Polling commissioned by the More in Common group — whose director Luke Tryl said the results should be “a wake-up call to our next Prime Minister” that “people want help now” — found that some almost nine-tenths of Britons believe the crisis will impact their day to day lives. Shockingly, around three-quarters believe there will be deaths this winter as people find themselves unable to afford their heating bills and succumb to the cold.
Eighty per cent believe people will resort to shoplifting to keep their heads above water, 70 per cent believe people will simply refuse to pay their bills, and over half — 51 per cent — believe things will degrade to the point that their are riots in the streets, The Sun reports.
Some Members of Parliament (MPs) for the government’s governing Conservative (Tory) Party appear to be live to the potential for social unravelling, with The Sun quoting Alec Shelbrooke, MP for the Elmet and Rothwell constituency in West Yorkshire, as saying that “[w]hat I’ve been seeing on the doorstep for the last six months is absolute fear in people’s eyes.”
“They are terrified as to what is coming down the line — they don’t know how they’re going to pay it,” he said.
Shelbrooke even said he was “not sure how in my family we’re going to pay if it carries on going up this road” — a remarkable statement, considering MPs are paid a salary of £84,144 with very generous expenses.