Emergency hardship £1,000 payment should be given to struggling households – PBP

An emergency hardship £1,000 payment should be given to households in Northern Ireland struggling with the cost-of-living crisis, People Before Profit has said.

The party launched its manifesto at the heart of the Foyle constituency where it wants to regain an Assembly seat at next month's Stormont poll.

It also calls for fuel price and rent caps, inflation busting pay rises for all workers, a £15 minimum wage for all ages and expanded welfare payments.

Gerry Carroll was People Before Profit's sole MLA in the last Assembly mandate.

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Eamonn McCann previously held a second seat for the party in Foyle from 2016 to 2017.

The party is running 12 candidates in the election next month.

Speaking at the manifesto launch at the City Hotel in Derry, Mr Carroll described the poll as an opportunity for people to "deliver their verdict on the executive's failure to stand by families when it mattered".

Foyle candidate Shaun Harkin said his party's manifesto contains policies to tackle the cost of living crisis head on.

“There is no doubt, the Stormont Executive has failed to protect working people from soaring prices and spiralling waiting lists,” he said.

“They have overseen stagnant wages, a punitive benefits system, soaring energy costs, and left $300 million unspent.

“In a word, they have failed.

“Recent years have shown socialists were right about many major issues, from the climate crisis, to the pandemic, to the fact that the money we’re forever told doesn’t exist was there all along.

“We have an opportunity this election to get ahead of the curve, to implement the radical solutions necessary to protect working-class communities now, to undo the years of damage to the health service, and to avert climate catastrophe.” – PA