Iceland has launched the first-ever supermarket customer panel to pen election manifesto.
It comes as the frozen food specialist’s executive chairman Richard Walker pledged the retailer would use its platform to give customers a voice during election year.
The panel, which is made up of seven customers from across the UK who applied to lead the manifesto, will provide their views monthly in the lead-up to the General Election, supplemented by a survey of up to 6,000 regular customers.
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Iceland said the panel had completed its first assignment in looking at the impact falling inflation has on their weekly budgets.
All claimed they were worse off than they were in 2019, and 83% said that the government and business leaders are not doing enough to tackle the issues. The panel also said that increases to insurance and utility bills in particular, were crippling their household budgets.
Iceland said it will then publish the manifesto this summer and share it with all political parties.
Walker, who has publicly backed Labour after resigning from the Conservative party last year, said: “Visiting stores over the past few months, customers have told me they have had enough of being told what they should care about and wanted their chance to be the voice of the high street. The Iceland Manifesto is their chance to do just that.
“From what the cost-of-living really means, to supporting our towns and villages, they’ll leave no stone unturned, and we’ll make sure we publish a full summary of their views later this year to hopefully inspire politicians to do less talking and more listening.”
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