Rachel Reeves demonstrated it isn’t just inflation soaring higher today as she was seen on TV defending her economic record in a bizarre falsetto.
A technical error occurred, leading to the Chancellor’s response about the increase in prices being delivered in a voice resembling that of Mickey Mouse.
The episode left Sky News presenter Wilfred Frost – son of Sir David – briefly dumbfounded before he said: ‘I think we have a problem…’
Regarding this, Ms Reeves stated, ‘The numbers today are clearly disappointing. We want to see inflation coming down after the cost of living challenges that people have been through these last few years.’
Her voice was then silenced entirely as broadcast bosses realised things were going awry.
The incident sparked amusement on social media, with users drawing parallels between the pitch of Ms Reeves’ voice and the economic policies of the Labour party that have contributed to a ‘ballooning national debt.’
Ms Reeves was facing the music after headline CPI rate rocketed from 2.6 per cent in March to 3.5 per cent last month, a peak not seen since January 2024.
Worryingly, it was significantly more than the 3.3 per cent analysts had pencilled in, with Ms Reeves acknowledging the figures were ‘disappointing’ and her national insurance hikes were partly to blame.
Core CPI – excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco – was also at the highest for a year.
The grim data will fuel Bank of England concerns about underling pressures, with chief economist Huw Pill having already warned that interest rate cuts have been too fast.
Experts immediately suggested that Threadneedle Street might pause reductions at the next monetary policy committee meeting next month. The Bank had forecast that inflation would top out at 3.5 per cent in the third quarter of the year.
The spike comes after Ofgem’s energy price cap rose by 6.4 per cent in April, having fallen a year earlier.
That was alongside a raft of bill rises for struggling households, including steep increases to water charges, council tax, mobile and broadband tariffs.
Meanwhile, Labour’s NICs and minimum wage increases will have been stoking pressure in the system.
ONS acting director-general Grant Fitzner said: ‘Significant increases in household bills caused inflation to climb steeply.
‘Gas and electricity bills rose this month compared with sharp falls at the same time last year due to changes to the Ofgem energy price cap.
‘Water and sewerage bills also rose strongly this year, as did vehicle excise duty, which all pushed the headline rate up to its highest level since the beginning of last year.’
Ms Reeves said: ‘I am disappointed with these figures because I know cost of living pressures are still weighing down on working people.
‘We are a long way from the double-digit inflation we saw under the previous administration, but I’m determined that we go further and faster to put more money in people’s pockets.
‘That’s why we have increased the minimum wage for millions of working people, frozen fuel duty to protect commuters and struck three trade deals in the past two weeks that will go towards cutting bills.’
Asked if the inflation figures had been pushed up by measures including the NICs hike, Ms Reeves said: ‘When I became Chancellor last year, I faced the very difficult challenge that there was a £22billion black hole in the public finances.
‘We had to fix that, and if we hadn’t have done the Bank of England would not have been able to cut interest rates four times this last year, which has obviously had a direct effect on the mortgages and the rents that people pay.
‘And also that money that we raised from national insurance, but also cracking down on non-doms, tax – VAT – on private schools, increasing capital gains, particularly on private equity firms, that money has gone into our National Health Service, which is why waiting lists and waiting times are going down after spiralling out of control the last few years.
‘So I do recognise that all policies have consequences, but if I hadn’t have acted to stabilise the public finances, we would be in a worse position today.’
However, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride squarely blamed Ms Reeves for the hike in inflation.
He said: ‘This morning’s news that inflation is up – and now well above the 2 per cent target – is worrying for families.
‘We left Labour with inflation bang on target, but Labour’s economic mismanagement is pushing up the cost of living for families – on top of the £3,500 hit to households from the Chancellor’s damaging jobs tax.
‘Higher inflation could also mean interest rates stay higher for longer, hitting family finances hard.
‘Families are paying the price for the Labour Chancellor’s choices.’
Speaking at an event held at Barclays in London yesterday, Mr Pill said the pace of interest rate reductions since August last year has been ‘too rapid’.
He said progress of ‘disinflation’ was partly a signal that easing monetary policy – meaning rates coming down – was working.
‘And in my view, that withdrawal of policy restriction has been running a little too fast of late, given the progress achieved thus far with returning inflation to target on a lasting basis.’
‘I remain concerned about upside risks to the achievement of the inflation target,’ he added.
Mr Pill, who is a member of the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), was among the members to vote against cutting rates to 4.25 per cent, instead preferring to leave them unchanged.
The bank’s base rate has come down from a peak of 5.25 per cent, when it was hiked to try to quell surging inflation across the UK.
He said his vote to hold interest rates at this month’s policy meeting was more of a ‘skip’ than a ‘halt’ in rate cuts.
This reflects his view that the ‘pace of bank rate reduction should be ‘cautious’, running slower than the 25bp (basis points) per quarter we have implemented since last August’, the economist said.
‘That requires a ‘skip’ in that quarterly pattern at some point. And I decided that the May meeting was an appropriate moment for that ‘skip’.’
Meanwhile, Mr Pill stressed that he was concerned about inflation persistence – meaning price rises remaining elevated – which would mean ‘you need to run the economy a little bit cooler’.
‘That’s an uncomfortable message, but it may be an important message for policymakers with inflation targets to normalise,’ he said.
‘I do worry about the fact that inflation has stayed stubbornly high, and pay dynamics have stayed stubbornly strong, even as activity has been relatively disappointing… over the last two to three years.
‘So that’s what I worry about… and I think that does influence the way I vote in the committee as an individual.’
Daniel Casali, chief investment strategist at wealth manager Evelyn Partners, said: ‘This acceleration in inflation for April was driven by a triple-whammy of factors. One, large indexed and regulated price increases, including mobile phone charges, vehicle excise duty, and water and energy bills.
‘Two, a later-than-usual Easter weekend, which lifted airfare and accommodation prices, and three, businesses passing on the higher National Minimum Wage and employers’ National Insurance (NI) contributions to consumers…
‘If inflation exceeds expectations – as today’s figure suggests it could – the MPC could well delay a further interest rate cut at its next meeting on June 19, particularly if news on the real economy remains stable.’
