FEARS for the economy grew today as the Bank of England kept interest rates at 4.5 per cent amid global trade uncertainty following new US tariffs.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham warned that inertia from the bank is “not going to help an economy on life support.”

“Rising inflation is a concern,” she said, “but as we’ve seen throughout the cost-of-living crisis, high interest rates are a blunt stick hitting workers and their families the hardest.”