Gavin Oulton

“We are delivering…the fastest wage growth in years” says Rishi Sunak in #PMQs. It is an extraordinary boast, for a few reasons. 1) that wage growth is a big reason why interest rates are still rising, why the Bank of England will next week increase interest rates again, and why there will be mortgage pain, much of it acute, for well over a million people over the next year (and the government too is having to pay significantly more to borrow) 2) the “fastest wage growth” is mainly in the private sector, over which the government has no control except in respect of setting the minimum wage; 3) Downing St and the Treasury have been furiously trying to suppress wage increases in schools, hospitals and the rest of the private sector, because they regard inflation as THE problem; 4) even with this “fastest wage growth in years”, most people on average are poorer, because inflation is even faster.