Brexit bias row as BBC warns of inf lation rise… on day it falls
THE BBC faced fresh accusations of anti-Brexit bias last night after warning inflation would hit 3 per cent because of the weak pound.
Veteran Tory MP John Redwood urged the broadcaster to ‘correct’ its coverage after figures showed the cost of living had actually fallen.
In an item on the Today programme on Radio 4 yesterday, before figures from the Office for National Statistics were published, presenter John Humphrys said: ‘Twenty-five years ago, inflation was around 8 per cent and people weren’t terribly worried about it because wages were rising pretty steeply, too.
‘Now inflation is rising again. It is still way short of what it was in the Nineties, but when the latest figures are announced this morning, they will show it has reached 3 per cent. It is supposed to be no more than about 2 per cent and it is rising and wages are not keeping up. Maybe we should be worried.’
Presenters, including business editor Simon Jack, also blamed a rise in the cost of living on the fall in the value of the pound since the Brexit vote last June.
Later the ONS announced the Consumer Prices Index had actually fallen to 2.6 per cent in June from 2.9 per cent in May. This is the first fall in the rate since October last year and the biggest monthly fall since February 2015, more than a year before the EU referendum.
The decrease was driven largely by a decline in petrol and diesel prices, which have fallen for four consecutive months as the price of oil has dropped. Mr Redwood demanded a correction from the BBC.
‘The BBC thinks our inflation rate has risen owing to a decline in the pound – a decline which started in the summer of 2015, not with the Brexit vote,’ he wrote on his blog.
‘The ONS now confirms that the UK inflation rate has risen and now fallen a bit in line with other countries – eg US and euro area – owing to movements in commodity prices. Time for the BBC to catch up with reality.’
And he told the Mail last night: ‘ The BBC’s coverage has been highly selective. They tend to blame any bad economic news on Brexit, while good economic news is never ascribed to Brexit.’
Fellow Tory MP Jacob Rees-Mogg tweeted: ‘ As inflation in the UK slows down to 2.6 per cent in June, the BBC and Remoaners are devastated as it defies Brexit doom and gloom predictions.’
Jonanthan Athow, of the ONS said: ‘Today’s fall is mainly due to drops in petrol and diesel prices. However, the rate remains higher than in the recent past.’
A spokesman for the BBC said: ‘BBC News is impartial and reports events in a balanced and accurate way.’
Record low interest rates have hammered savers and sent debt levels soaring, Andrew Bailey, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, warned yesterday. This has made saving for a decent retirement more expensive for millions of workers, he said.
‘Coverage has been highly selective’