BANK of England bosses have been “asleep at the wheel” for failing to tame soaring prices, Tory MPs have blasted.
Governor Andrew Bailey has been criticised for getting nowhere near the 2 per cent inflation target.
2
2
As inflation remained stubbornly high at 8.7 per cent, he came under fire for not acting aggressively enough with interest rates to cool economic activity.
Ex-Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg accused Mr Bailey of “burying his head in the sand”.
He told the Sun: “Having been too slow at the start, they now risk an overreaction that risks damaging economic consequences.
“But it’s extraordinary arrogance for the Bank to blame everything but its own monetary policy.”
Ex-Cabinet Minister Sir Jake Berry told LBC: “My own personal view is that the Bank of England has been asleep at the wheel.
“They have lots of jobs but their main job from government is keeping inflation below 2 per cent.
“We’ve learned today that depending on what measure you use, it’s 7 per cent and higher.
“They clearly have reacted too slowly to this inflationary pressure.”
Former Education Secretary Kit Malthouse said Mr Bailey’s predecessor Mark Carney left the Bank “complacent and sluggish”.
He told the Sun: “They were unsurprisingly slow off the mark, sleepwalking into this storm with duff forecasts and a timid attitude.
“Now the danger is, embarrassed, they will over-correct and makes things worse than they need to be.”
Most read in The Sun
Tomorrow the Bank is expected to raise rates by half a percentage point to 4.75 – in another blow for mortgage owners.
It is another bid to tackle inflation, which remains higher than many European neighbours.
Ahead of the likely rise, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt gave the Bank his full backing in hiking rates.
