Failure to help struggling households will cost Tories dear | Larry Elliott

Rising housing and energy costs plus higher taxes mean ministers have to come up with something

Governments underestimate the power of celebrity at their peril. First it was Marcus Rashford and his campaign for hungry children. Now it is Jack Monroe pointing out how the official inflation figure bears no relation to the real cost of living increases facing the neediest households.

The footballer and the chef have performed an important public service by highlighting, in a way that official statistics and thinktank reports can't, just how tough life is on or close to the breadline.