Angela Eagle MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said in response to today’s figures showing CPI inflation running at 4.5 per cent:

“These are concerning figures, which show inflation now running at more than double the target rate.

"Across the country millions of people on low and middle incomes are being squeezed from every direction by rising prices made worse by the Tory VAT rise. The squeeze has been compounded from last month by cuts to tax credits, cuts to childcare support and the child benefit freeze.
 
“And to make matters worse George Osborne’s decision to raise VAT at a time of rising world food and oil prices looks increasingly like an own goal as high inflation continues to threaten a rise in mortgage rates for homeowners. 
 
“The Bank of England has been put in an impossible position by George Osborne. It has been left to do all the work to support a recovery that's been choked off by the Tory-led Government’s fiscal policy to cut deeper and faster than any other major economy in the world.”