100,000 people in 24 hours sign up to campaign to slash energy bills and give everyone a pay rise
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Over 100,000 people signed up to a campaign calling for a cut in energy prices and a major pay rise for millions of workers within the first 24 hours of it launching.
The Enough is Enough campaign has a list of five demands they believe will help tackle the cost of living crisis millions of people have been plunged into.
They want a rise in the minimum wage with a view to making it £15 an hour along with a public sector pay rise and an 'inflation busting' increase in pensions and benefits.
To go with a pay rise the campaign is calling for a cut in energy bills back to pre-April 2022 levels where the average household was paying £1,277 per year for power.
On top of that, the campaign is also calling for an end to food poverty, new measures to build more decent homes and safeguard the rights of renters along with more taxes on the rich.
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Launched by trade unions, backed by community organisations and supported by Labour MPs Zarah Sultana and Ian Byrne, the campaign believes the solution to the cost of living crisis is higher wages, lower bills and a right to housing.
They say they want 'fair pay, affordable bills, enough to eat and a decent place to live' to become rights the British public can enjoy.
Picking up more than 100,000 supporters within the first 24 hours, the campaign has since surged beyond 250,000 members on the second day.
Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), said surging to 250,000 members so quickly was both an 'incredible achievement' and unsurprising.
He said: "For Enough Is Enough to recruit 250,000 members in just two days is an incredible achievement, but it’s not surprising when you consider the reality of modern Britain.
"Working people in this country take all the risks and keep society going, but are ignored by the powerful and refused any part of the wealth they create.
"It's time workers went on the front foot to set the political agenda and take this country back from the brink."
Enough is enough. It's time to turn anger into action.
— Enough is Enough (@eiecampaign) August 8, 2022
Join the campaign to fight the cost-of-living crisis.https://t.co/1SeHcIXdMr pic.twitter.com/sVFpFpXMe1
The pain only looks set to increase further as revised forecasts of the energy price rises due to come in October and January say people will end up paying even more than first thought.
At some points it feels like the only thing not going up is people's ability to actually pay for the rising costs in food, energy and other bills.
Cornwall Insight have been crunching the numbers and their findings make for grim reading as they now estimate that when the energy price cap rises in October the average household will be spending £3,582 per year on their bills.
They reckon it's set to get even worse in January as they predict the average annual energy bill will then go up to £4,266.
On average that means come January 2023 households will be paying almost £3,000 a year more for energy than they were doing at the beginning of this year.
