Nigel Farage’s “lies about Brexit” are to blame for the UK’s inflation and it’s “disingenuous” to blame the Bank of England governor, Andrew Bailey, says the CEO of the world’s largest independent financial advisory, asset management and fintech organization.
The damning indictment from Nigel Green of deVere Group comes as the former leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) and leader of the Brexit Party-turned-broadcaster hits out at the governor over interest rate hikes, saying “the economic incompetence with which this country is now being led beggars belief.”
The Bank of England on Thursday raised interest rates to 5% the highest in almost 15 years.
The deVere CEO says: “Nigel Farage is doing what Nigel Farage does: creating sensationalist headlines, that are lacking in reality.
“The fact is that his Brexit lies in a large part have caused the sticky inflation that has prompted the Bank of England to raise interest rates further.”
He continues: “All Western countries have seen price hikes in the last two years, but the UK’s inflation is the worst in Western Europe. Why? Brexit – of which Farage was one of the primary architects.
“As someone who runs a global organisation, I can see that Brexit has made almost every economic activity with the EU more onerous and expensive.”
Wage inflation, says Nigel Green, is now a “huge issue” as it has “hit Britain’s labour market.”
He notes: “Brexit’s ending of free movement of people continues to cripple critical parts of the UK economy such as transport, hospitality and retail, and this is fuelling wage inflation, which is a direct reason why the Bank of England is now raising rates.”
Nigel Green concludes: “While the Bank of England might have made mistakes on inflation, it is disingenuous for Nigel Farage to now attack the governor of the central bank as Brexit is a hugely important contributing factor as to why the UK is still battling hot inflation.”
