Prime Minister Rishi Sunak with Laura Kuensberg in Downing Street Garden. Photo: Simon Walker/10 Downing Street
Rishi Sunak said he was ready to take unpopular steps on public sector wages to fight inflation as he insisted there was no alternative to curbing prices.
The Prime Minister indicated that he was going to show restraint on wage increases and refrain from channeling large sums of cash to help people with their mortgages as it was vital for the UK to «maintain composure» in the face of tough global headwinds.He also defended the record of Andrew Bailey, governor of the Bank of England, after senior party officials accused him of «sleeping at the wheel».
In an interview with BBC Sunday with Laura Kuensberg, Mr Sunak said he was determined to make «affordable» and «responsible» public sector pay decisions that «may not always be popular in the short term.»
< p>“It doesn’t make sense for me to do something that sounds popular and beautiful today, for example, about salaries in the public sector,” he said.
“I would give with one hand, and we would just take the other is due to higher inflation and interest rates. This is not the type of leadership the country needs and I am not going to do it.”
He said that if he makes «wrong decisions» and the government ends up «borrowing too much money,» that would «add fuel to the inflation problem,» making the problem worse.
Mr. eventually admitted that the rising cost of mortgages would affect family finances, after being repeatedly asked, he would admit that raising interest rates in itself would be painful for many people.
But he said he «fully» supported the Bank of England's decision as he insisted there was no alternative to «eradicate inflation».
He said the interest rate hike was «one component» of what was needed to be done to combat rising prices, but emphasized that it is up to the bank, while it is responsible for making the «difficult» and often unpopular decisions on government loans.
This comes after John Glen, a senior Treasury secretary, suggested to ministers that they rescind the recommendations of the independent watchdogs on public sector wages, as it would be «irresponsible» to ignore the impact of the proposed wage increase on inflation.
< p>The prime minister denied living in some sort of «parallel universe» when it came to people's daily struggles with mortgages, shopping bills and NHS waiting lists, insisting he «never said it wasn't So». it will be a difficult time.”But he stressed that the government has a plan that «will work» and «we will get through this.»
When asked if he thought Mr. Bailey had done a good job, he said: » I think the Bank of England's track record, including the Governor's track record, over a long period of time has been that inflation has been properly managed and people need to be sure that inflation will return to target levels.
“I can tell you as prime minister, the Bank of England is doing the right thing. The Bank of England fully supports me. Inflation is the enemy for all the reasons we've talked about. Inflation is what makes people poorer.»
Mr Sunak also acknowledged that it «will take time» for the overall NHS waiting list to shrink, insisting that Covid's lag «will always take -time to work.» through.”
“Because of our record investments today, because of the plans we have put in place, we are seeing that waiting lists for individuals are shrinking,” he said. «I have always said that the overall waiting list will not be reduced until next year.»
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