// Asda’s Lord Stuart Rose has criticised Boris Johnson, who was spotted in a Greek supermarket on holiday this week
// Rose said: “We’ve got to have some action. The captain of the ship is on shore leave, nobody’s in charge at the moment.”
Asda chair Lord Stuart Rose has slammed Boris Johnson for being on holiday in Greece while the UK faces a “horrifying” inflation crisis that is “not about to go away”.
The Conservative peer expressed his frustration and said “nobody is in charge at the moment” as it was revealed this morning that inflation had hit 10.1% – a 40-year high.
Rose then went on to criticise both Tory leadership candidates Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak for failing to grasp the urgency of the situation, and said “inflation isn’t sitting there waiting for us”.
READ MORE:
- Asda launches first loyalty scheme nationwide
- ‘Worldwide shipping problems will continue for years’, warns Asda and Sainsbury’s supply chain provider
- Is Asda’s yellow Just Essentials value range a branding nightmare?
Speaking on the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme, Rose said: “We have been very, very slow in recognising this train coming down the tunnel and it’s now here, and it’s not only about to run us over, it’s run quite a lot of people over and we now have to deal with the aftermath of that.”
Criticising the lack of urgency within government, Rose said: “We’ve got to have some action. The captain of the ship is on shore leave, nobody’s in charge at the moment.
“It is now the middle of August, it will be soon September. We’re going to have an emergency budget, we are told.
“When is the actual effect of that budget going to take place? Are we going to wait till October, November, December? Inflation isn’t sitting there waiting for us.”
Official figures from the Office for National Statistics revealed that the Consumer Prices Index measure of inflation reached 10.1% last month, largely attributed to a spike in food prices and household essentials such as toilet rolls and toothbrushes.
Click here to sign up to Retail Gazette‘s free daily email newsletter
