Household budgets will be further squeezed from tomorrow by a raft of price and tax rises. 

Sir Keir Starmer accused the Conservatives of a “pathetic” response to the cost-of-living crisis as he put it at the heart of Labour’s local elections campaign. 

Motorists are staying at home because they fear they will run out of petrol. 

Shoppers are braced for a steep rise in the price of eggs and cucumbers. 

Hundreds of thousands of people risk paying an extra £1,700 a year on their mortgages as a wave of cheap fixed-rate deals struck five years ago end. 

There are dozens of factors that will leave consumers hundreds of pounds worse off by the end of the year. 

This piece identifies 17 of the main offenders and offers advice on how best to navigate the crisis. 

Meanwhile, Tom Stevenson details how to keep Rishi Sunak’s hands off your investments forever.

Game of chicken

Undoubtedly one of the causes of inflation that will hit houses hard this year is the war in Ukraine – and the associated energy crisis. 

Vladimir Putin has warned that Russia will cut off gas supplies to Europe if countries refuse to pay in roubles.

The G7 has previously rejected the demand. Europe gets about 40pc of its gas and about a quarter of its oil supply from Russia.

Yet options to reduce the continent’s reliance are limited amid a global scramble for gas that pushed prices to record levels even before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Read how German chancellor Olaf Scholz has been playing a high-stakes game of chicken over Putin’s gas.

As Britain aims to improve its energy security, Boris Johnson has raised fresh hopes of a relaxation of fracking rules after halting plans to fill wells owned by the energy firm Cuadrilla with concrete. 

Yet Jeremy Warner warns we cannot use taxpayer cash to solve the energy crisis.

Loss of Western lifestyle

Of course, the war has not just caused a living standards headache for Europe. 

A daily medium cup of coffee in Moscow has turned into an unrealistic luxury for Katya, whose name we have changed, costing “as much as a whole meal in a mid-range cafe”. 

When the Russian capital’s shopping centres were filled with Western brands, “I regularly bought Nespresso coffee, and Ikea products”, says the 21-year-old.

Just one month into Putin’s war with Ukraine, however, the shop spaces are “half-empty”, Katya says. 

As foreign firms pull out of Russia, a new iron curtain is rising between Moscow and the West. 

Read how many young Russians are mourning the loss of a lifestyle they have grown up accustomed to.

Comment and analysis

Around the world: The ‘railway rebels’ of Belarus

In small towns across Belarus, a daring alliance of “railway rebels” are waging a quiet war against Vladimir Putin’s invading army. Every week, under the cover of darkness, residents in crucial junction towns steal onto the nearby tracks and do whatever they can to stop Russian resupply trains from being able to pass through on the way to Ukraine. Nataliya Vasilyeva has the inside story on their acts of sabotage. In Ukraine, this nerve-wracking footage from Borodyanka, a town in Kyiv Oblast, shows three drivers carefully navigating main roads littered with landmines. Yet as the bombs rain down on Ukraine, somehow life goes on. This stunning image reveals the moment a doctor shows a woman her newborn son in a maternity hospital. Our live blog explains why the UK’s Chief of Defence Staff said Putin made an “insane” decision not to tell members of Russia’s armed forces that they would be invading.

Thursday interview

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