KIRSTI MURRAY:  You cannot save a penny. Even if you save it, something comes up. Or, every week the shopping is getting dearer, you are living hands to mouth, it is ridiculous.

ELIAS CLURE, REPORTER: For almost 14 million people, this is the harsh reality of life in the United Kingdom. It’s a country where the poor are getting poorer 

JAN BOYD, EMS FOODBANK: We are the sixth richest country in the world and we’ve got parents skipping meals so they can ensure their children get fed

ELIAS CLURE:  And a divisive populist movement promising to pull old blighty out of its rut is rapidly gaining momentum. 

NIGEL FARAGE:  The government is deep in crisis!

ELIAS CLURE:  People have lost patience with the political establishment in this country. They want something different. 

ANAS SARWAR, FIRST MINISTER OF SCOTLAND:  The leadership in Downing Street has to change

KEIR STARMER, UK PRIME MINISTER:  I will never walk away from the mandate I was given to change this country

ELIAS CLURE:  We’ve travelled to England’s north to investigate whether Britain is broken and if it can be fixed. 

Hull – a working-class coastal city in England’s northeast. About half of the 200,000 residents here live in state housing including Kirsti Murray. She’s lived in this small terrace for almost a decade with her teenage son who has a disability. 

KIRSTI MURRAY:  The past, I’d say the past two years it’s been hell because obviously we had COVID and then we couldn’t get a lot of things and then on top of that it’s now cost of living. Like I can’t go to like a food bank and rely on food from them because he’s on a restricted diet. 

ELIAS CLURE:  Are there weeks sometimes where you worry that won’t be able to afford food for you and your son? 

KIRSTI MURRAY: There’s been times when I’ve gone without, just to make sure that he’s been all right, because he’s my priority, as long as he’s fed, I’m not bothered.   

ELIAS CLURE:  The bitterly cold English winters are particularly hard. 

KIRSTI MURRAY: Generally as a rule I don’t put my heating on because we’ve got blankets, if it gets that cold, we’ll bring coats down or we’ll just literally sit in our beds and watch telly. 

ELIAS CLURE:  This area is considered the sixth poorest in the United Kingdom. 

JAN BOYD:  The residents can come in here and take four items once a week for a pound. 

ELIAS CLURE:  Jan Boyd has run this local food bank for almost a decade and says she’s never seen things this bad. 

JAN BOYD:  Probably over 50 per cent of children in the area are living below the poverty line. So if you’re below the poverty line you’re not going to be able to heat your houses and then you’ve got ongoing health issues as a result of living in cold homes. 

We as an organisation shouldn’t exist. We should not need to be here and our partners around the city shouldn’t need to here because people should be able to heat their homes and feed their children. 

ELIAS CLURE:  The latest census revealed 21 per cent of people across the UK are living in poverty.   

Without London, the UK’s GDP would be lower than that of the US’ poorest state – Mississippi. 

PROF. STUART MCANULLA, UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS:  We used to constantly tell audiences about our …

ELIAS CLURE:  Stuart McAnulla is a politics professor at the University of Leeds. 

PROF. STUART MCANULLA: So there was a feeling that in the 1980s, a lot of the economic steps that were taken then, which a lot people felt privileged the interests of finance in the centre of London, tax cuts that tended to favour the already affluent. and in the meantime, underinvestment in parts of the north. 

ELIAS CLURE:  In 1970s the UK’s manufacturing made up 30 per cent of the country’s GDP.

But throughout the ‘80’s, under prime minister Margaret Thatcher, much of that industry moved offshore. Today it’s just 8 per cent of the UK’s economy.

There are other factors that have contributed to Britain’s standard of living decline and the increase in poverty. 

UK productivity growth has slowed significantly since the 2008 market crash going from around 2 per cent annually to 0.6 per cent on average and there’s been massive cuts to local councils and public services. 

Real wages have gone backwards and that’s combined with sky rocketing inflation post COVID and Brexit 

STUART MCANULLA:  I think you’re looking at the sort of economic impacts of deindustrialisation in parts of the north of England, people feeling that they’re losing out. 

ELIAS CLURE:  Here in London, the seat of power, the government is promising to increase the minimum wage, build more homes and invest in infrastructure to create more high paying jobs. 

Its conservative opponents are pledging to reduce taxes and end stamp duty. There is also a focus in that building on reducing the level of migration with the claim it will ease pressure on infrastructure as well as housing. 

But you speak to political analysts and economists, and they’ll tell you that the problems in this country are deep seated and for any politician to fix them they will need a lot of time but perhaps most importantly patience from their colleagues, other politicians, and the public. 

But there is a man promising a speedy fix – populist Nigel Farage who leads the Reform Party. 

Recent polling shows that the Labour government’s support has collapsed and if an election was held in the UK tomorrow – Nigel Farage could become prime minister. 

In recent months he’s been recruiting MPs of the opposition conservative party including former shadow foreign minister Andrew Rossindell   

ANDREW ROSSINDELL, REFORM UK MP:  We’ve been let down by both Conservative and Labour governments for so many years. We need a change, we need reform of our country. 

ELIAS CLURE:  Nigel Farage was one of the most high-profile supporters for Brexit, some people would say that the UK no longer being in Europe is part of what is driving up inflation.   

ANDREW ROSSINDELL: The opposite is true. So what’s happened is that since we’ve left the European Union we’re in control of our own laws again. When we were in the EU we had to do what we were told by Brussells, disaster 

The idea that Brexit is the cause of our problems is absolutely wrong. 

ELIAS CLURE:  Reform’s message seems to be cutting through in the UK’s most deprived areas including Hull. Once a traditional Labour heartland, the city recently elected a Reform Party mayor – former Olympic gold medal boxer Luke Campbell. 

LUKE CAMPBELL, MAYOR FOR HULL AND EAST YORKSHIRE:  I personally think that people were fed up with politicians and they wanted something different. I’ve got a sporting background, I’ve no experience in politics and I was always very clear about that. 

ELIAS CLURE:  Why did you decide to run as a Reform candidate? 

LUKE CAMPBELL:  I just thought it, as it was, it just won’t currently working and I think we needed something different and that was my choice. 

ELIAS CLURE:  But across town Kirsti Murray is doubtful any politician can make material change. 

KIRSTI MURRAY:  Until you’ve lived it, you don’t know. It’s alright making these promises, but they’re empty promises.

ELIAS CLURE:  Some people have told us that they feel like Britain is broken, would you agree? 

KIRSTI MURRAY:  It is broken, and it’s not going to get any better. 

ELIAS CLURE:  Would you live somewhere else if you could? 

KIRSTI MURRAY:  I would move abroad if I could. I would literally pack up and go because it’s a walking nightmare.