RAPPER Professor Green has called on the Government to do much more to end the cost of living crisis and said “the bare necessities shouldn’t be a luxury afforded to certain people”.
He was asked in an interview with GB News host Alex Phillips: “Let’s look at this, at the fuel poverty going on, the cost of living crisis, heating or eating and record numbers of people having to go to food banks. I mean, how on earth is this acceptable in the 21st century?”
Green responded: “I don’t think it is. What they, the government that we have, don’t tend to discuss is how many of those people are earning their poverty and beneath the breadline, because we have record numbers of people in employment that are existing, as opposed to living and are barely surviving.
“And we’re seeing more and more people – there’s an exponential increase in people experiencing debt for the first time, energy debt, which wasn’t a phrase that was coined when I was growing up.”
He said: “I grew up with my nan’s anxieties around money because of all the stress that existed in our household. My grandmother brought me up and there was a lot of robbing Peter to pay Paul, you know, being ushered off so as my nan could make an excuse to one debt collector or borrow money from one debt collector to pay another.
“Fortunately, there are places you know, and charities providing support for people now, but then you’ve got to go over all the barriers that people have accessing the support, pride being one of them and others being language barriers and computer literacy or access to a computer.
“There’s so many challenges that people face just to access this support…my belief is that the bare necessities shouldn’t be a luxury afforded to certain people – they should be afforded to one and all, which might be seem like a bit of a pipe dream in today’s day and age, but it should be a priority.”
Green said that becoming a father has made him focus on his finances and make sure that he can provide for his son.
“I hope that my child will grow up differently, but that’s going to take a hell of a lot of hard work for me,” he added.
“It makes me much more focused on getting rid of my mortgage and doing all the things that I can to try and provide a future for my son that’s different to the one that I was afforded.
“It’s scary. The idea of not being able to provide for your family and the stigma that exists around being a man and not being able to provide, it’s been incredibly difficult and it’s frightening.
“I understand the pride that comes with that and not wanting to open up by needing help, but I think it’s really important.
“Listen, I’ve been in debt, my money management skills were terrible for the larger part of my life because I had no real education to speak of, let alone education as far as money management.”
