Rishi’s hopes of curbing inflation are shrinking rapidly, with new figures from the Office for National Statistics showing wages grew at a record 7.3% between March to May, the joint highest since records began in 2001. Unemployment, meanwhile, hit an unexpected 4%, up from 3.8% in the previous quarter. There are still around a million job vacancies across the country…

Work and Pensions Secretary, Mel Stride, was out defending the rise as he told LBC the government is taking a “firm and robust approach to public pay settlements”. This is the very same Mel Stride that pressured the Truss government to uproot benefits with inflation. Is it any wonder pay demands have been soaring too…

Commenting this morning, Jeremy Hunt said:

“…We still have around one million job vacancies, pushing up inflation even further. Our labour market reforms – including expanding free childcare next year – will help to build the high-wage, high-growth, low-inflation economy we all want to see.”

In last night’s Mansion House speech, he also stressed “delivering sound money” is the government’s “number one focus“, and “bringing down inflation puts more money into people’s pockets than any tax cut“. Rishi promised to halve inflation when it was at 10.7%. It is still stubbornly high at 8.7%, and today’s figures won’t do much to help him out…