Who is popular today?

Rising inflation led to government interest payments hitting a record high for the month of January, figures show. Interest payments hit £6.1bn last month, the highest amount for January since records began in April 1997 and up from £4.5bn last year. The payments are pegged to the Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure of inflation – which reached 7.8% in January. January’s interest payments were, however, below the all-time high of £9bn in June last year. Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, told the BBC it was worth noting that “overall interest payments by the government are still…