It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Mark. I congratulate the hon. Member for Leeds East (Richard Burgon) on securing this important debate.
The UK economy was already facing a crisis of high inflation driven by corporate greed, which was squeezing living standards and forcing millions deeper into poverty, but while large corporations have exploited the crisis and the Government’s inaction to make record profits and pay hefty dividends to shareholders, the Bank of
England has again increased rates, which punish ordinary people who are not the cause of inflation the Bank supposedly wants to bring down. Worse than that, the Bank knows that people and wages are not driving inflation. Even the Governor of the Bank of England, Andrew Bailey, admitted at the press conference to announce the latest crippling interest rate hike that he knows that wages and renumeration are not causing high inflation. Instead, he said that the main drivers are the high prices being charged for food and clothes—two essentials that people have no choice but to spend money on.
Anyone would think that the workers of Leicester would be wealthy, such is the scale of the food and garment factories in the area, clothing and feeding the nation. However, 42% of children in my constituency of Leicester East are living in poverty. According to the ONS data from 2022, the median annual wage of workers in Leicester East is £19,960, compared with averages of £25,837 in the east midlands and £27,756 in the rest of the UK. There is no union recognition in those factories to protect workers from the profiteering supermarkets and billionaire garment-brand owners.
What is the interest rate hike meant to do? Is it meant to force people to eat less and wear rags or cheap, unsustainable garments? When all they have is an interest rate hammer, ordinary people—even the poorest—look like a nail. The Government need to force the Bank of England to work with them to bring about an effective approach to controlling inflation by capping prices. That would hit companies in their profits when they stoke so-called greed inflation, not hammer innocent ordinary people over and over.
Last week, former Monetary Policy Committee member, Danny Blanchflower, said that the Bank of England was guilty of terrible group-think and incompetence, and should just quit, because its decision to raise interest rates was so appalling. Corporations, brands and retailers are abusing the people of this country for the sake of profit. The Bank of England is attacking the wrong people, and this Government are failing in their primary duty of protecting the people. When are the Government going to step in and end this greed-driven, greedflation madness?
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