It is the incumbent killer, from Joe Biden to Rishi Sunak: inflation. Voters will put up with stubborn unemployment and low growth, but they absolutely hate rising prices. Labour has had the good fortune of coming to office as inflation had fallen back to target, a far cry from the double digit price rises of a few years ago. But the British economy is not out of the woods yet.
Inflation has risen to its highest rate since April, driven by a sharp rise in household energy bills. The Consumer Price Index jumped to 2.3 per cent in October, up from 1.7 per cent in September, according to the Office for National Statistics. This represents the biggest month-on-month rise in the rate of inflation for two years.
