Wage-price spiral | Is Boris Johnson right to say workers need to accept pay cuts?

Boris Johnson has warned that workers will have to accept real-terms wage cuts if the UK is going to avoid ‘70s-style “stagflation” and soaring interest rates.

This represents a startling U-turn on comments made earlier this year, when he repudiated the Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey’s suggestion that British workers should accept wage restraint in order to avoid spiralling inflation. In response to that, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “It’s not something that the Prime Minister is calling for. We obviously want a high-growth economy and we want people’s wages to increase,” City AM reported.