Labour’s ‘cost of living’ eggacy

‘Well the cost of living can’t be that high if people can waste eggs’, chortled many a wag today as silly season exploded all over Ed Miliband’s face and jacket. As reported, the shell-shocked Labour leader was in South London to talk about the rising cost of living under the Tories, but had his media appearance poached by a protester hurling a dozen eggs at him.

Giving Miliband the benefit of the doubt for a moment, how have living costs risen? Let’s take a piece of random household expenditure, something that immediately springs to mind. Eggs, say.

Wholesale cost of eggs in the UK (pence per dozen)

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/egg-statistics

According to figures from Defra, under Labour, the wholesale price of a dozen eggs doubled from 35p to 70p – much faster than inflation – hitting families who are struggling on the egg-line. Awkwardly the figures also show that the price of eggs is actually falling under the Tories. I’m not sure Ed has cracked this one yet.