Ross Clark Ross Clark

How independent is the Bank of England?

Credit: Getty Images

As Kate Andrews argues here, the Bank of England were never going to cut interest rates during an election campaign for fear of being accused of favouring one side or the other. That ruled out a rate cut in June, while in July there was no meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee. But are those five members who voted for a quarter-point cut today really confident that they have not opened themselves to charges of bias, by cutting rates at the earliest opportunity after the election of a Labour government?

For months, the MPC was telling us that it was too early for a rate cut – in spite of rapidly falling inflation – because wage growth was too high.

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