Chancellor Rachel Reeves suffered a huge blow on BBC Breakfast as correspondent Ben Boulos delivered a breaking news update
BBC Breakfast was halted for breaking news (Image: BBC)
BBC Breakfast viewers insisted they “couldn’t bear to watch” as the programme was halted for a piece of devastating breaking news in a huge blow to Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Correspondent Ben Boulos had the details as UK inflation rates rose to 3.8% in July, explaining: “This figure is important to us all. It gives us a sense of how quickly prices are rising and how far our money goes when we spend it doing and buying things.”
He added: “Now inflation in the UK has risen faster than expected to 3.8% according to the Office for National Statistics. Now that compares with 3.6% in June, so that tells us that average prices rose more quickly in July than they did the month before. Put really simply, it means if you spent £100 on a range of goods and services a year ago, those same things would now cost you £103.80.”
Ben went on to explain: “It is an average, so you will have noticed some things have jumped in price more sharply, most notably air fares and transport costs, as well as food and drink and restaurants and hotels.
“Now another factor that might have contributed to price rises generally is the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions starting to peek through. Some businesses will have started to pass those on to customers through higher prices since that increase took effect back in April.”
There was more bad news for anyone with a mortgage, as Ben added: “Now this figure for July is nowhere near the peak of recent years when inflation hit more than 11% at the end of 2022, but it remains almost double the Bank of England’s target of 2%, and that’s why the bank has not cut interest rates as quickly as people with mortgages and other loans would like.
Ben Boulos had more bad news for anyone with a mortgage (Image: BBC)
“It did bring down the cost of borrowing slightly to 4%, but today’s figure for inflation in July will influence the bank’s next decision in mid-September, perhaps making a rate cut less likely.”
One disgruntled viewer tweeted in response: “Can’t bear to watch [crying emoji]. My poor bank account!” Somebody else said: “BBC can tell you all the bad news but never any good news… strange.”
Someone else posted: “Government increases costs for businesses to do ‘stuff’. We have to pay more for ‘stuff’. Not a huge surprise, the old domino principle…”
