Labour inaction lets inflation and shop prices spiral again

YOU MAY have heard that inflation is up. No, this isn't a rerun from last year. It really is up. Again. So much for the “fiscal discipline” and “costed plans” Rachel Reeves bleated on about when she was soliciting votes like a beggar with a tin can. The reality has come to bite: high inflation is back and it's here to stay. And it's ordinary people - working families, renters and small businesses - who are paying the price for this Government's stubborn refusal to change course.

- Esther Krakue

TROLLEY TRIBULATION: Huge supermarket bills are showing no sign of stabilising

The truth is grim. Britain is now on track to have the highest inflation rate in the G7. That means another long winter of soaring food prices, energy bills, rents and mortgages. For most people, it's the weekly shop that stings. Bread, fruit, dairy; everything costs more than it did a year ago, and the gap between pay packets and living costs grows wider by the month.

Reeves can talk about “stability” all she likes, but when a family's food bill jumps by 20 or 30 quid a week, that's not stability, it's a slow-motion decline.

At this point, it looks like the Chancellor's entire strategy is to point to France and say to the bond markets: “Well, at least we're not that bad.” Sadly, that is not much comfort. Drawing comparisons with a country led by a hollow government only highlights how thoroughly Britain has been dragged into the same swamp of stagnation.

Our leaders aren't just incompetent; they're willingly so.