It didn't go well for Alex Burghart's first PMQs
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner took apart a senior Tory MP today over his ridiculous take on inflation.
Rayner stepped in for Prime Minister Keir Starmer who is at the G20 summit in Rio De Janeiro.
Official figures released today show that inflation crept up from 1.7% to 2.3% in October which is above the target rate of 2%.
Alex Burghart, the shadow chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster, began his first PMQs from the despatch box by asking Rayner: “What is the government doing to bring down inflation?”
Rayner replied: “Many people might not know that the honourable member was the minister for growth when under Liz Truss, inflation was 11.1% and growth flatlined. So we’re doing much better than he did!”
Science secretary Peter Kyle responded to the increase in inflation by telling Times Radio: “We certainly want to get inflation down. We know the impact that inflation has on people’s everyday spending. This does concern us. And we want to make sure that we do everything we can to ensure that it carries on falling.
“The fact that we’re now delivering a stable economy, we have stable politics, these are the kinds of things that will deliver lower inflation into the longer term.
“And we’ll certainly be doing everything we can to make sure that’s a reality that people can experience in their pocket going forward.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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