Andrew Bailey has been criticised by Tory MP Philip Davies, who claimed he has “spent his entire career failing upwards”.
Suggesting the Governor of the Bank of England (BoE) is to blame for the UK’s inflation problem, the Conservative MP and GB News contributor said the sooner he leaves his post “the better”.
This came after he branded British growth as the “worst I’ve ever seen” in a bleak outlook for the UK’s future prospects.
Slow growth has been listed as one of the main reasons why Andrew Bailey and the Monetary Policy Committee are refusing to lower interest rates.
WATCH: Liam Halligan discusses Andrew Bailey’s remarks
Bailey told The Chronicle in Newcastle: “If you look at what I call the potential growth rates of the economy, there’s no doubt it’s lower than it has been in much of my working life.
“It does concern me that the supply side of the economy has slowed. It does concern me a lot.”
Hitting out at Bailey, Davies told GB News: “I think Andrew Bailey is a clown and an utter liability.
“He was a hopeless CEO of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). He has been wrong about virtually everything, was ruinously slow to tackle inflation after getting all of his projections wrong, and has spent his entire career failing upwards.
“The sooner we are shut of him as Governor of the Bank of England the better.”
Bailey had warned it would be “hard work” to cut inflation.
Although it has dropped sharply in recent months owing to lower energy prices, the Bank of England’s inflation rate is still more than double the current 2 per cent target – currently sitting at 4.6 per cent in the year to October.
Inflation was sitting at a peak of 11.1 per cent this time last year with Bailey claiming there was “more of that to unwind” from international energy and food prices.
But he warned families should not expect sharp falls.
He said: “We’re not going to see another month, I’m afraid, where it’s going down 2pc because of [energy].
“By the end of the first quarter next year, when a lot of that unwind will have happened, we may be a bit under 4 per cent but we’ll still have 2 per cent to go, maybe.
“And the rest of it has to be done by policy and monetary policy.
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“And policy is operating in what I call a restrictive way at the moment – it is restricting the economy.”
The Bank of England declined to comment.
Robert Johnson is a UK-based business writer specializing in finance and entrepreneurship. With an eye for market trends and a keen interest in the corporate world, he offers readers valuable insights into business developments.
