Tories call for cut to interest rates despite market gloom over rising prices – live

Two Tory MPs are calling for interest rates to be cut despite market gloom over today’s inflation figures.

Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Conservative business secretary, argued the Bank should have cut rates already because “inflation is a lagging indicator.”

Paul Scully, a former minister, said cutting the rate would “bring relief to many who are fixing their mortgages for the next few years”.

BT has been fined £2.8 million by the industry watchdog after EE and Plusnet failed to provide clear and simple contract information to more than a million customers before they signed up.

Ofcom said that since June 2022, BT’s EE and Plusnet businesses made more than 1.3 million sales without providing customers with a contract summary and information documents, which affected at least 1.1 million customers.

Average UK house prices increased by 1.8 per cent in the 12 months to March, according to official figures.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said it lifted the average house price across the UK to £283,000.

It represented a recovery in pricing after house prices had fallen by 0.2 per cent in the 12 months to February.

Meanwhile, the ONS also revealed that UK private rents increased by 8.9 per cent in the 12 months to April, as house price inflation slowed slightly from 9.2 per cent growth in the year to March.

ONS chief economist Grant Fitzner said: “Average UK house prices grew over the year for the first time since last summer.

“House prices saw an annual rise in every nation and region, except London and the South East, with Scotland seeing the fastest annual growth.

“After two years of unprecedented and generally accelerating annual growth, private rental price rises showed tentative signs of easing.

“Most nations and English regions saw a slowdown, with a notable easing in London.”

Today’s inflation figures show the economy is “not out of the woods yet”, Labour’s shadow Treasury minister Darren Jones has said.

The MP for Bristol North West said inflation was heading “in the right direction” but there was more work to be done.

He told Sky News: “Core inflation is still around 3.6 to 3.9 per cent, which is hotter than the markets were expecting it to be. This is not out of the woods yet. It is in the right direction but there is still much more to be done.”

Mr Jones pointed to Labour’s “securonomics” agenda, which includes measures to build “homegrown, secure, renewable energy”.

The shadow minister said: “The one reason that the headline rate of inflation has come down closer to 2 per cent today even though the cost of other things are remaining a bit too high is because of the energy bills.

“The problem there is if something happens in the world and gas prices rocket again, we are going to be back into that inflationary environment with very high bills.”

Jeremy Hunt declined to be drawn on when he thought the Bank of England would cut interest rates.

The chancellor said the central bank would cut rates when it was “confident that it is sustainably at its target”.

Analysts said the Bank was likely to be more cautious on a potential cut in June because inflation fell by less than expected.

Labour will be “much more ambitious” on the economy than the government if it wins the election, Rachel Reeves has said.

The shadow chancellor said her party would bring “stability back to our economy” and invest more in renewables.

She said Labour would invest more in  “home-grown renewables so we’re less reliant on Putin and dictators around the world for our basic energy needs and can bring energy bills down for families and pensioners”.

Jeremy Hunt has acknowledged that people were likely to be feeling worse off than they did a few years ago.

The chancellor said “two massive shocks” – the Covid pandemic and Russia’s war in Ukraine – were to blame for the drop in living standards.

Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme, the chancellor said: “Do people feel better off now than a few years ago? No, because we have had something that you and I have never had in our lifetimes.

“We have had two massive economic shocks in quick succession so no, they don’t feel better than they felt a few years ago.

“The numbers show very clearly that since 2010 over a longer period of time living standards have improved, we have got four million more jobs, we have attracted more investment than anywhere in the world apart from China and the United States.

“The reason I am saying that is because this is an election year, people are going to make a choice about the future.

“When it comes to the important things that make a difference, the difficult decisions on having a flexible labour market, on getting taxes down so that we attract investment from overseas, a Conservative government will continue to take those difficult decisions.”

Watch some of the interview below:

Jeremy Hunt said it was “nothing to do with me” when asked if he personally felt wealthier following the cost-of-living crisis.

Asked by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme if he felt wealthier, the chancellor said: “It is nothing to do with me. It is to do with my responsibilities as chancellor.

“What I know when I became chancellor is we had the Office for Budget Responsibility saying we were going to have the biggest fall in living standards ever.

“We had the Bank of England saying that we were going to have the deepest, the longest recession for a hundred years.”

He pointed to cost-of-living support the government had offered, adding: “The result of those difficult decisions, and they were difficult because in the end we had to put up taxes for those decisions, but the result is living standards have gone up since Rishi Sunak became prime minister.”

In a testy exchange, Mr Hunt could earlier be heard to insist “me too” when host Emma Barnett said she was interested in people’s household finances.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been dealt a blow after official figures revealed borrowing for April overshot forecasts, hitting £20.5 billion, in the fourth-highest April since records began in 1993.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that public sector net borrowing was £1.5 billion more than in 2023, partly pushed up by falling national insurance contributions.