Rishi Sunak insists he will ‘remain steadfast’ as Bank of England blasted for hiking interest rates AGAIN

BANK of England chief Andrew Bailey was blasted today for “failing” millions of households as interest rates were hiked AGAIN.

In a blow to homeowners, the Bank raised rates to an eye-watering 5%.

Alamy

Rishi Sunak today vowed to “remain steadfast” in his mission to tackle inflation[/caption]

Reuters

The PM’s comment came as Bank of England chief Andrew Bailey faced huge criticism for not getting a grip on spiralling prices sooner[/caption]

That’s a 0.5% jump on the previous 4.5% figure and the highest level since September 2008.

Responding to the rapid rise, Rishi Sunak vowed to “remain steadfast” in his mission to tackle high prices.

The PM told The Times’ CEO Summit: “The reason interest rates are going up is because inflation is too high.

“We’ve got to grip it.

“I always said it would be hard and it’s got harder in the past few months.”

He added: “Anyone who tells you it is easy isn’t being straight with you.”

Mr Sunak admitted to top business leaders that his key promise to halve inflation by the end of the year has been “made harder” by events of the last few months.

But he caveated it’s not impossible to achieve.

Meanwhile, Tory MPs hit out at Mr Bailey for not getting a grip on inflation sooner.

Ex-Cabinet Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg raged: “The Bank of England has failed, does it still deserve to be independent?” 

And former Cabinet Minister Sir Jake Berry last night told LBC: “My own personal view is that the Bank of England has been asleep at the wheel.

“They have lots of jobs but their main job from government is keeping inflation below 2 per cent.

“They clearly have reacted too slowly to this inflationary pressure.”

Former Education Secretary Kit Malthouse said Mr Bailey’s predecessor Mark Carney left the Bank “complacent and sluggish”.

He told the Sun: “They were unsurprisingly slow off the mark, sleepwalking into this storm with duff forecasts and a timid attitude.”

Sir Keir Starmer told the Times Radio Summit the he will personally feel the full force of the interest rate rise today – admitting his mortgage costs will go up.

The Labour leader said: “It will affect our mortgage.”

And he added that next month “will feel a lot worse”.

“This is really bad news for so many families,” Sir Keir said.

The Labour chief said there was no “quick fix” to sticky inflation, but asked why the UK has been one of the hardest hit countries, he blamed 13 years of low growth and Liz Truss’ disastrous mini-Budget last year.

Sir Keir insisted help should be given to households through his five-point plan, which includes lengthening the term of the mortgage – but ruled out a direct financial intervention.

He also ruled out any tax grab by putting up Capital Gains Tax.