Adding fuel to the fire: customers at the forecourt react to Sunak’s statement

theguardian.com:

The dust had settled a day after Rishi Sunak swept through a Sainsbury’s petrol forecourt in south east London as part of a publicity event for his spring statement.

While the chancellor of the exchequer was mocked on social media for posing for publicity pictures showing him pumping petrol into someone else’s Kia Rio – later telling staff that he hoped customers “would be a bit happier” with fuel duty coming down – it was the wider cost of living squeeze that was foremost in the minds of many passersby on Thursday.

Some motorists at the petrol station welcomed a 5p-a litre-cut to fuel duty, though others using an adjacent supermarket characterised the spring statement as a missed opportunity to assist them with potentially crippling daily living costs and increasingly costly bills.

George, 65, and Geraldine 70 BridgesTwo retirees on the way to do a weekly shop at Sainsbury’s, across from the petrol forecourt

Geraldine: “If I had known that Rishi Sunak was here yesterday I would have gone up to him and really said that we feel forgotten about. We’re already struggling to pay our energy bill at the moment and it’s going to be going up about £585 a year.

“We’re just going to do a shop in Sainsbury’s now and we’ve had to change things drastically there too. It’s all yellow label [discounted] items, which we either batch cook things like chilli or put it in the freezer.”

“George is on a pension and I am on universal credit and it just feels like it’s one thing after another. Our daughter has been paraplegic since an operation some years ago so we have the two children with us. We bought a motorhome some years ago thinking that we could use it in retirement but we can’t bring it back into London because they want £300 from the