SHADOW Education Minister Neil O’Brien has said that the UK is heading for a period of “stagflation” following the greater than expected rise in inflation announced today.

He told GB News: “The government can say it’s disappointing, but it’s the government’s fault. I mean, they’ve inherited a situation where it was low and falling and on target, and got to one where there is this surprising increase in inflation.

“The alarming thing is it’s against the backdrop where the economy is stagnating, unemployment is going up, but we’re heading into a kind of stagflation, where the cost of living is going up, but the economy is going down.”

He added: “it’s very, very alarming. The Chancellor has already increased taxes to a record high, a record share of the economy. And unbelievably, for a Labour government, a notionally social democratic government, they have done that by increasing taxes in a way that is targeted on low income workers, those who are grafting, working hard for a living, not earning that much.

“They are taking the biggest hit from the Chancellor’s tax increases, and now their only plan, with this huge hole opening up in the [public] finances, and everyone expecting there to be a big problem for the Chancellor this autumn,

“They are now casting about for even more tax increases, which the UK economy needs like a hole in the head.

“We’re already seeing the economy stagnating because of the tax increases that Rachel Reeves has pushed through already. The answer is not even more tax increases. The time is now to start looking at some of the government’s crazy wasteful spending.

“We should start by looking at this unbelievable Chagos surrender deal, where we are handing over money to another country to have our own territory taken off of us. I mean, absolutely incredible abuse of taxpayers’ [money]. We should be looking at things like that before we start increasing taxes even more.”

Asked why the government appeared to be in difficulty with some of its policies, he said: “Labour promised that they would fully fund the increase in the national insurance tax on state schools, but they broke that promise, and some schools have been left up to 35% short.

“And then they promised to fund the teachers’ pay deal, and they broke that promise too. And that is why, across the country right now, schools are, unbelievably, making good teachers redundant. And according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, they have created with these measures an £800 million gap, and that translates into about 13,000 teachers losing their jobs unless something is done.

“Under the last government, we increased the number of teachers in England by 27,000 and now…schools across the country, and some of them are going public about this, are sacking good teachers because of the hole that has been created by Labour breaking their promises, particularly by breaking their promise that they would fully fund the tax increase on state schools, and they haven’t done it.

“They said they would do it, and they have not done it.”