London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

‘Nobody is in charge’: Tory peer hits out at ministers over inflation

‘Nobody is in charge’: Tory peer hits out at ministers over inflation

As rate reaches double digits, Stuart Rose calls lack of government action to shield households ‘horrifying’

The veteran retailer Stuart Rose has urged the government to do more to shield the poorest from double-digit inflation, describing the lack of action as “horrifying”, with a prime minister “on shore leave” leaving a situation where “nobody is in charge”.

Responding to July’s 10.1% headline rate, the Conservative peer and Asda chair said: “We have been very, very slow in recognising this train coming down the tunnel and it’s run quite a lot of people over and we now have to deal with the aftermath.”

Attacking a lack of leadership while Boris Johnson is away on holiday, he said: “We’ve got to have some action. The captain of the ship is on shore leave, right, nobody’s in charge at the moment.”

Lord Rose, who is a former boss of Marks & Spencer, said action was needed to kill “pernicious” inflation, which he said “erodes wealth over time”. He dismissed claims by the Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss’s camp that it would be possible for the UK to grow its way out of the crisis.

Rose told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are sitting here now into the second, third, fourth month into this crisis and we’re still waiting to see what action will be taken … I would like to see us looking after those who need it most.”

He said inflation “picks on the poorest hardest, but we have to deal with it, we can’t ignore it”. The peer said he believed that interest rates would have to rise further to tackle rising prices, and that the UK was “heading towards a recession”.


Rose, who is backing Truss’s rival, Rishi Sunak, to become the next prime minister, criticised the candidates in the Tory leadership race for “throwing money at everything”.

As households worry about their energy bills rising even further in October, when the energy price cap is updated, more than 130,000 people have signed a petition backing a call by the former prime minister Gordon Brown for an emergency budget to tackle the energy and cost of living crisis.

Labour said soaring prices had left households concerned about how they would make ends meet. “People are worried sick, while the Tories are busy fighting and ignoring the scale of this crisis,” said the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves.

The chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, hit back at the suggestion that government was waiting to offer more support to families, saying people would receive £400 of energy bill support in the “next couple of months”.

“The 8 million people who need the most urgent help are getting at least £1,200 of additional direct payments to them,” he told reporters. Zahawi also denounced Labour’s plan to freeze energy bills, stating it would reward “people like me who are at the wealthier end of the spectrum”.


Unison called the cost of living crisis a “living nightmare for millions of working people”. The union – which represents more than 1.3 million members providing services in education, local government, the NHS, police service and energy – is calling for above-inflation pay rises to help workers cope with rocketing prices.

“The government and those angling to be the next PM appear indifferent to the plight of those struggling to make ends meet,” said Jon Richards, a Unison assistant general secretary. “Ministers are deluded if they think workers can put up with yet more misery.”


The former Bank of England policymaker Andrew Sentance said pay rises being received by workers could push inflation higher still.

“You can see what is happening in the labour market, with employees looking to recoup some of the rise in the cost of living through wage increases. If you look at the official figures for wage increases in the private sector, they are running at about 6%. That is way ahead of what is compatible with a 2% inflation target,” he told the BBC.

Sentance, now a senior adviser at the consultancy Cambridge Econometrics, said the Bank of England needed to “put a brake” on wage increases, and predicted the Bank could raise interest rates to 4% by the end of the year.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
×