Food prices are rising at their fastest rate for 45 years, official figures reveal.
Britain’s stubbornly high rate of inflation will pile more pressure on struggling families.
It is those on the lowest wages worst affected, as they spend a greater proportion of their incomes on groceries and essentials.
Jeremy Hunt’s response to this crisis was to claim the economy was on the right track. This was not just laughable but insulting.
The Bank of England is expected to raise interest rates yet again to try to curb inflation.
That will mean higher costs for mortgage owners, renters and borrowers.
The responsibility for this doom loop of misery lies with the Conservative government. Prices are rising because of the botched Brexit deal and the failure to curb energy costs.
Far from being on the right track we have been derailed by Tory incompetence.
Earn our trust
On entering Downing Street Rishi Sunak promised to restore integrity and accountability to government.
But the register of ministerial interests fails the basic test of transparency.
Several Cabinet ministers, including Mr Sunak, have blind trusts and there is no way of knowing what is in them or whether they could pose a potential conflict of interest.
The register refers to Mr Sunak’s wife’s shares in the childcare firm Koru Kids but not her £468million stake in Infosys, the Indian IT firm founded by her billionaire father.
When such a glaring detail is omitted it is impossible to have faith in the system.
The register should be policed by a truly independent adviser, not someone hand-picked by the Prime Minister, and ministers should be made to record all relevant interests.
Flipping great
A king penguin called Spike is hoping to p-p-pick up the crown of the world’s most popular penguin.
If he makes it to the top of the pecking order he deserves to be called an emperor penguin.
