THE Economic Secretary to the Treasury has denied that today’s unchanged inflation figure of 6.7% is a disappointment.

Andrew Griffith MP told GB News: “Well, we always said it would be challenging. It’s an ambitious target [halving inflation], but it’s absolutely the right priority to have.

“Inflation robs people of their purchasing power, the value of their savings. And so in a world where governments have to make difficult choices, prioritising the fight to halve inflation this year was the right one.

“This is broadly in line with expectations. There’s still a quarter left to go, we will see some of the benefits of the continuing reduction in energy prices.”

In a discussion during Breakfast with Isabel Webster and Tom Harwood, he continued: “In terms of general economies, we’re broadly in the middle of the pack on most metrics with most other big western G7 economies.

“Of course, in the UK we protected households to a larger extent than in the US. We helped people more with their energy bills.

“We helped more people during Covid and we’re paying some of the price of that, but it was the right decision that we took to protect people then and it’s why we continue to make difficult but responsible decisions to bear down on inflation.

“That plan is working as shown by today’s figure, but there is still more to do.”

Asked if Prime Minister Rishi Sunak would be travelling to the Middle East this week, he said: “I can’t add anything to the speculation but I can confirm the Prime Minister has been at the heart of diplomatic efforts.

“He’s spoken to the leaders of both the Gaza itself, of Egypt, of the King of Jordan, and of course, staying very closely in touch with our international allies. So there’s a lot that the Prime Minister and the UK is doing already in this space.”