Will Bank of England governor survive Tory pressure to quit?
The IndependentLegend has it that Andrew Bailey’s wife once faced down a grizzly bear at the family’s holiday home in Idaho. Conservatives have certainly tried their best to give Mr Bailey a mauling this week – accusing him of being “asleep at the wheel” in dealing with rising inflation after this week’s grim figures panicked backbenchers afraid of losing their seats. Former cabinet minister Jacob Rees-Mogg said the governor and his team had “bungled” by being much too complacent on soaring prices in recent years, calling Mr Bailey “chief ostrich” with his head in the sand. “Too little too late is the reason inflation is now becoming sticky,” said ex-Treasury minister Andrea Leadsom of this week’s 0.5 per cent interest rate hike, adding that there were “lots of questions” about why Mr Bailey had been so behind the curve. No 10 faced awkward questions all week about Mr Bailey, refusing to say whether the prime minister believed that Mr Bailey was doing a “good job”.