Rates surge + sky-high inflation.. is this the lead-up to: RISHI'S RECESSION

PM's blame game as Bank hikes interest

- GRAHAM HISCOTT

PRIME Minister Rishi Sunak tried to dodge the blame for the economic mayhem as the Bank of England yesterday unleashed another rate rise.

The Bank slammed for not taming runaway inflation announced a surprise 0.5 percentage point hike.

The 13th rise since late 2021 took its base rate to a 15-year high of five per cent and means hundreds of thousands of mortgage borrowers face spiralling repayments.

Others with loans, renters and small businesses will also be hit.

More rate hikes are expected, potentially tipping the UK's already near-flatlining economy into recession.

Sunak yesterday tried to blame supermarkets for eyewatering price hikes crippling families across the country.

He told workers at an Ikea warehouse in Dartford, Kent, he would ensure grocery retailers were behaving "responsibly and fairly".

He admitted weekly shop bills had "gone up far too much in the past few months especially".

He told them: "We're looking at the supermarkets, to make sure that we're easing the burdens on your weekly shop." Sunak also claimed he was "totally 100 per cent on it" in helping families with interest rate rises.