DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Tories’ greatest test is tackling this cost crisis

Make no mistake, the latest grim forecasts from the Bank of England make for gruesome reading.

With the economy set to slam into reverse, the spectre of recession looms.

Inflation is predicted to soar above 10 per cent, heaping more agony on families and pensioners grappling with rocketing prices for everything from energy bills, to petrol and the weekly shop.

Britain faces stagflation. The buzz-phrase may sound innocuous, but it is a poisonous combination of soaring costs and stagnant growth.

To slay this dragon, the Bank has raised interest rates to 1 per cent – a 13-year high. Of course, this remains historically very low.

Make no mistake, the latest grim forecasts from the Bank of England make for gruesome reading

But it will still strike fear into the hearts of those with mortgages and businesses who face higher borrowing charges – increasing the risk of job losses.

(And how predictable that the grasping high street banks shamelessly refuse to pass on rate rises to savers.)

Labour snipes tiresomely that this is a purely British disease. But that’s an egregious lie. The squeeze is a global problem caused by post-pandemic supply chain chaos and surging gas prices, and exacerbated by the Ukraine war.

While this has dealt a juddering blow to our recovery, the truth is that had Chancellor Rishi Sunak not devised emergency Covid measures to protect firms and jobs, the pain would have been infinitely worse.

Even so, the Treasury and Bank of England blundered badly by turning off the money-printing presses, increasing interest rates and hiking taxes all at the same time, delivering a triple whammy to incomes and prosperity.

If the Tories do suffer heavy losses in the local elections, they will learn a hard lesson. The Government must do more to protect people from crippling living costs.

Radical thinking is required. Relaxing MOT rules for new cars is an imaginative start. What about slashing red tape on childcare to ease parents’ costs? Spiking the hated national insurance hike entirely? Or, with the Treasury raking in record sums, bringing forward the planned income tax cut?

The country is now on the flight path to the general election. The key battleground will be which party is best placed to pilot Britain through the economic turbulence.

It’s imperative the Tories capitalise on their reputation for competence with the nation’s purse strings.

If life remains hard for ordinary families, they will call for the tumbrils.

Investigate Keir’s beers

The dire economic hardship facing the whole country puts No 10 parties and Sir Keir Starmer’s biriyani and beer knees-up firmly in perspective.

But by sanctimoniously demanding Boris Johnson resign for unwittingly being in the presence of a birthday cake, Labour’s leader has made it important.

Even his Left-wing chums, including Sadiq Khan, say it’s no different to Sir Keir wolfing down an illicit curry with a roomful of activists. Of course it isn’t!

Durham police must investigate. Not because this paper thinks Beergate is the crime of the century. Nor because the ex-director of public prosecutions, who pretends he is a paragon of honesty, has been exposed as a dissembling hypocrite.

But because the law of the land should be applied consistently and fairly.

• Remember the doom-peddlers who branded Boris a murderer for not locking down harder during the pandemic? Led by scaremongering Sir Keir, they claimed Britain was a wretched plague island with Europe’s worst death toll. In fact, the World Health Organisation reveals our excess fatality rate was lower than most countries. Will Sir Keir and the other shrieking opportunists apologise? We won’t hold our breath.