Local MP Jamie Stone warns of 'deep concerns across society over financial squeeze'
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North MP Jamie Stone has warned that inflation "is a very real, very worrying possibility" that could inflict serious damage on household incomes and frontline services.
He was speaking in a House of Commons debate on Thursday on Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s economic plans as set out in his autumn budget.
Mr Stone recalled the inflation crisis of the 1970s, during which time he worked in the oil industry. He argued that Mr Sunak had taken a serious risk by unveiling a tax-and-spend budget at a time when the public was experiencing unprecedented increases in household bills.
He added that the increased cost of global commodities, alongside the double impact of Brexit and the pandemic, could have devastating consequences.
Mr Stone, the Liberal Democrat MP for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, said: "If you take a tax-and-spend budget and add it to the increase in the price of commodities in the world, like the cost of fuel, and you think of the ramifications of Covid and Brexit, we could have inflation on our hands.
"Now, I am the oldest member of my parliamentary party at the age of 67. Therefore, I have lived through the horrors of inflation in the 1970s. I was working in the oil sector then on a smallish wage.
"I remember that, during the year, your wages started not to meet the cost of the bills you had to pay. Inflation is a bad, bad thing. I hope that it doesn’t hit us, but I fear it might."
Following the debate, Mr Stone said: “There are deep concerns across all facets of society about the financial squeeze facing the British people this winter. Despite this, the Chancellor has announced nothing in his budget to indicate that he has a real plan for kick-starting sustained economic growth.
"Without that, inflation is a very real, very worrying possibility. Such a scenario would not only devastate household incomes but also threaten the frontline services we all rely on."
