Rishi Sunak entered Downing Street, almost two years ago, with inflation running rampant at 11%. Two weeks before the polls, on July 4, the latest data for May indicates that the UK CPI fell to 2%. The prime minister included in the list of commitments to measure the success or failure of his mandate to reduce that burden by half, “the real thief in the night” that impoverishes the British, as he himself defined it in his campaign for win the leadership of the Conservative Party. And yet, everything indicates that the good news comes too late for a candidate and a political party that, after 14 years in power, has gone into a tailspin. The latest survey by the IPSOS company gives up to 453 seats to the Labor Party, compared to just 115 for the tories. In 1997, the year of New Labour’s historic victory, Tony Blair won 418 seats and the Conservatives won 178.
“This morning we have good news, with inflation returning to normal at 2%,” Sunak said this Wednesday on LBC. “It is a lower figure than that of Germany, France or the United States. When I became Prime Minister, inflation was at 11%. We make bold decisions and do not deviate from the adopted plan. That is why today the economy is taking a turn,” the prime minister tried to celebrate.
The Bank of England (BoE) meets this Thursday with the good data on the table. 2% is the inflation target set by the monetary authority, which increases hopes that the interest rate, set at 5.25%, will begin to be reduced. But analysts rule out that the BoE will approve the first cuts this week, still conditioned by the pressure of rising wages due to growing demand in the labor market.
The shopping cart
In any case, shopping basket prices remain exorbitant for most Britons. On average, they have risen 20%. UK citizens have experienced food inflation in three years that, under normal circumstances, should have taken more than a decade to reach those levels, the economic analysis center has said. Resolution Foundation.
And the Conservative Party faces elections after 14 years in power that have led to economic stagnation, increased inequalities and deterioration of public services. The good inflation data is insufficient to alter the mood of voters who, according to all the polls, have already decided on their punishment.
Join EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.
Subscribe
“After 14 years of economic chaos under Conservative governments, working people have seen their lives get worse. Store prices continue to rise, as do mortgages. And taxes are at the highest level in the last 70 years,” said Rachel Reeves, the spokesperson for the Economy and number two in the Labor Party, regarding the news of inflation.
Despite Sunak’s attempts to focus the electoral battle on immigration – with his plan for deportations to Rwanda -; in the country’s national security, with a promise to increase the Defense budget up to 2.5%, and in the questioning of the personality and past of the Labor candidate, Keir Starmer, the inertia of the electoral campaign has made it clear that More than ever, the British will have the economy, the housing crisis, the deterioration of health or education or the exorbitant cost of living on their minds when casting their vote at the polls.
Follow all the international information on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.
