That is exactly right. That state of affairs is completely perverse in one of the richest countries on earth.
I mentioned that the French Government have secured a deal to place a price cap on staple foods to ease the pressure of inflation on consumers. Why can we not do that here? The public backs it. A poll last year showed that 71% of voters support price caps that place limits on what companies can charge for certain goods and services such as energy, housing and other essentials, including food. That 71% even included the overwhelming majority of Conservative party voters.
My final point is about the need for public ownership. Returning energy, rail, water and other key utilities to public ownership, to be run for people and not profit, is the best way of ensuring a permanent end to the profiteering that so many of these privatised companies are gratuitously engaged in. I hope the Minister will respond by admitting what all the leading economists and financial institutions say about greedflation, and I hope that today’s debate is the start of the Government listening and Parliament talking more about the fact it is greedflation, not workers’ wages, that drives inflation. Corporate giants are taking advantage in the most heartless way, using this crisis as an excuse to hike up the prices of essentials. As ever, it is ordinary people who pay the price.