UK unemployed should be forced to pick fruit – ex-MP

Britons don’t have an automatic right to low prices, former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe has claimed, adding that people should simply go without certain foods if they are struggling financially. Discussing the UK’s cost-of-living crisis on the BBC’s Politics Live show, the former Tory member suggested that anyone claiming unemployment benefits should be made to fill labor shortages by picking fruit. Widdecombe also advised people who cannot afford to pay for some food items to simply stop buying them. “Well then you don’t do the cheese sandwich. None of it’s new. We’ve been through this before,” she said. “The problem is we’ve been decades now without inflation, we’ve come to regard it as some kind of given right.” The cost of living has risen sharply in the UK over the past two years, with annual inflation standing at 10.1% in March, driven largely by soaring food prices. Although the inflation rate dipped from 10.4% in February, it fell less than expected and is still well…