BoE official on £190k salary says Brits must ‘accept they’re worse off’ & stop demanding pay rises

A £190,000-a-year Bank of England official has sparked fury by saying Brits must “accept they’re worse off” and stop demanding pay rises.

Huw Pill, the BoE’s chief economist, said there was a “reluctance to accept” the UK is poorer.

He said gas price rises triggered by the war in Ukraine had led to the problems and ignoring the fact risked a long-lasting inflation.

Former Goldman Sachs banker Mr Pill, who has a £1.5million home in London, received a £95,000 pay package for just his first six months when joining the BoE in 2021.

But he has now told a podcast that people “need to accept that they’re worse off and we all have to take our share”.

It comes as food prices have risen at their fastest rate in 45 years and inflation is above ten per cent — five times the target of two per cent.

Oxford graduate Mr Pill, who has a PhD from California’s Stanford University, warned a “pass-the-parcel game” of wage demands was pushing up prices as firms pass on the extra costs from increased pay and energy prices to consumers.

But Martin McTague, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said the “out of touch comments” by Mr Pill were “criticising firms for putting up prices to cope with the cost of living crisis”.