Can Rishi Protect Us From The Great Inflation Tsunami?

‘The proposed cuts to consumer taxes will be thoroughly welcome’

- Tim Newark Political commentator

With Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s autumn spending review and budget coming up next week, the shock rise in domestic energy bills must be balanced by holding back on consumer taxes – and it looks as though Rishi Sunak may be listening. A cut to the five per cent rate of VAT on energy would help hard-pressed householders, plus the reorganising of alcohol duty could see cheaper beer and wine.

This winter sees an unprecedented assault on British consumers as inflation is taking off, triggered by rocketing gas prices, staff shortages and disrupted international supply lines pushing up costs. Both the Government and the Bank of England seem to have been caught by surprise by the four per cent surge with the cost of living possibly set to go higher for longer than they thought.

We’ve seen a lot of catastrophic predictions recently, delivered by experts advising government, but this one appears to have missed most of them, with the Prime Minister initially dismissing it as a temporary correction following the end of Covid lockdowns.