Justin King

Former Sainsbury’s boss Justin King has warned the cost of living crisis has not even yet begun, as he urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak to reverse plans for an increase in National Insurance contributions.

King, now a director at M&S, said he believed food inflation would last through the whole of next year and would rise to almost double its existing levels.

“We’ve already seen a significant increase in food or drink prices, somewhere in the region of 5%,” King told the BBC’s Today programme this morning.

“I personally think it will get closer to 10% and I think it will last a deal longer than is the central view, certainly well into next year and probably through next year.”

King said it was wishful thinking that the spike in prices would only be short term.

“The pressures are long-lasting. If you take the cost of wages they are a big part of the cost of food and I doubt very much whether this year’s pay deals are going to be ahead of inflation, so there is going to be some matching up to do.

“In truth, the cost of living crisis has yet to arrive. It’s the increase in energy prices in particular I think which is going to hit most households hard, quickly followed by the increase in National Insurance.”

He said he hoped the government could be persuaded to abandon the rise and even to cut National Insurance, to try to reduce the inflationary pressures.