Don't trust the official inflation rate of 3.3%, warns John Major - it could be as high as 10% - News

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Families are being hit by a real rate of inflation as high as 10%, Sir John Major has claimed.

In a rare intervention in domestic politics, the former Tory prime minister and chancellor said the Government's official inflation measure, the Consumer Price Index, could not be trusted.

He attacked Labour for taking housing costs and council tax out of inflation calculations. It made the CPI, on 3.3% in May, 'extremely misleading'.

Sir John told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: 'If you look at what's happening to food, to heating, to the expenditures most people cannot avoid, inflation is probably between 8 and 10%.'

The former premier expressed 'human sympathy' for Gordon Brown and said he regretted personal attacks on him.

But he rejected Mr Brown's claim that Britain was uniquely well-placed to weather the storm and said public finances had been so badly mismanaged there was no room for tax cuts or spending increases to jump-start the economy.

'I think we're going to be very close to recession, if not technically in recession,' said Sir John.