Politics

Footage resurfaces of Boris Johnson downplaying fears about inflation surge

Footage resurfaces of Boris Johnson downplaying fears about inflation surge
UK is facing a 'bad situation' with soaring inflation says Bank of ...
Indy

Boris Johnson has revealed he has all the forward-planning skills of a goldfish as he was last year unable at all to even slightly predict inflation would become such a major issue.

Asked during a Sky News interview in October 2021 if he was worried about inflation, the PM downplayed fears about the state of the economy, instead saying: "I'm very encouraged by the growth that I'm seeing.

"People have been worrying about inflation for a very long-time. I'm looking at robust economic growth and those fears have been unfounded," he said.

"The supply chains that we have are incredibly clever and robust and supply will meet demand," he continued.

"As the UK economy comes roaring back to live we are going to see brilliant businesses and brilliant people making sure that we have the supplies that we need."

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Fast forward seven months later and fears about inflation have been very much founded with inflation climbed to a fresh record high of 9 per cent last month, according to the Office for National Statistics reported on Wednesday.

Around three-quarters of the overall surge in inflation came from higher energy bills and it means prices have risen at their fastest rate in more than 40-years in the 12 months to April.

Experts put this down to a range of factors including the war in Ukraine, Brexit and the hangover from the Covid pandemic.

So, having failed to push through a windfall tax on businesses yesterday, Labour want to debate introducing an emergency budget to help those most in need but the government have blamed global factors and say they are doing all they can.

Johnson's political foresight though... not great.

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