Portugal has recorded its hottest May day in history, with temperatures hitting 38.6C in the central town of Mora. The heatwave, now drifting north, has prompted the UK Met Office to warn that British farmers could face similar extremes within the decade. For the families in the North who already struggle to put food on the table, the prospect of failed harvests and rising food prices is a terrifying one.
This is not a distant threat. It is a direct hit to the pockets of working people. The price of a loaf of bread has already climbed 12% year on year. A bad harvest for wheat or potatoes will push that higher. The unions representing farmworkers and food processors are already calling for government intervention: emergency subsidies, price caps on essentials, and investment in drought-resistant crops.
But the government response has been slow. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it is "monitoring the situation". That is not enough. The workers who pick our fruit and vegetables, who staff our packaging plants, who drive our supply lorries, need concrete action now. Without it, we will see more strikes over pay and conditions, more empty shelves, more families forced to choose between heating and eating.
This is the real economy. Not abstract GDP figures, but the cost of a bag of potatoes, the wage packet of a picker, the heat in a greenhouse. The Portuguese record should be a wake-up call. The next one could be ours. And when it comes, it will be the poorest who pay the price.
