Chancellor Jeremy Hunt Branded 'Mr Bean' For Video

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been compared to Mr Bean over a social media video in which he uses coffee cups to explain inflation.

In the video, Mr Hunt orders a flat white before explaining what he is doing to tackle rising prices.

He says a cup of coffee a year ago was around £2.50, but is now £3. He then sets out the reasons for high inflation, such as the war in Ukraine.

Both Labour and Liberal Democrats criticised the chancellor's video.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to halve inflation this year but many expect this to happen anyway largely due to a slowdown in energy price rises and as post-pandemic supply problems ease.

The government's official independent forecaster the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) expects inflation, which measures the rate of price rises, to fall to 3.75% by the end of this year - well below half the current level.

And the Bank of England expects it to drop to around 5%. The Bank's target rate is 2%.

Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the expected fall in inflation "does not have much to do with government policies".

Instead, he said it would largely be driven by the fall in commodity prices and shipping costs over the last six months working its way through to prices for food and other goods, along with energy bills starting to fall back in the second half of this year.

"They [government] will be able to take some credit if they stand firm on public sector pay rises, but this is just one relatively small part of the overall puzzle," he said. "The biggest driver of the fall in inflation will be global developments in food, energy and goods prices."

The video was released after the latest inflation figures were released early on Wednesday.

Although price rises slowed for a second month in a row, the cost of food including milk, cheese and eggs kept inflation close to a 40-year high of 10.5% in the year to December.

Sarah Olney, the Lib Dems' Treasury spokesperson, said the "last thing" families needed was a "Mr Bean-esque video" from the Conservative party.

"What's even more shocking is that Jeremy Hunt airbrushed one of the main causes of economic pain - Liz Truss' disastrous mini-budget that resulted in the biggest tax hike for a generation," she added.

"How is that supposed to help Britain with inflation?"

A Labour source added: "The chancellors 'not me guv' explainer misses out the fundamental fact that the British public have been so exposed to economic shocks and the energy crisis because of 13 years of Tory failure."

In the video, posted on early Wednesday, Mr Hunt explains there are "lots of reasons" inflation has gone up, citing Covid, and the war in Ukraine pushing up food and energy prices.

"All that means is the price of a cup of coffee has gone up," he adds.

Mr Hunt says the government is investing in renewable and nuclear energy and energy efficient programmes as well as taking "difficult decisions to balance the nation's books" to "halve inflation".

"That's what's happening, and that's our plan", he adds.

In response to the clip, Fraser Nelson, editor of the Spectator magazine, tweeted: "I wonder if Hunt explains that a Chancellor has no real power over inflation - and that it's expected to halve in France, Germany, US, Canada, Israel & more.

"None of whose finance ministers are trying to take credit for this global trends."

Another user responded: "Who makes these? The script, camera angles, editing and even lens choices come together to create a condescending, mid-20th-century didactic tone."

Former Education Secretary Kit Malthouse also appeared to question the content of the message with the comment: "Money supply?"