Good Morning Britain presenter Martin Lewis warned that the psychological and financial toll of inflation on UK families will be 'incredibly damaging,' as he criticised the government's handling of the situation. On Tuesday (October 15), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said UK inflation will soar to the highest level among G7 nations in 2025 and 2026, largely driven by rising energy and utility costs.

Inflation is forecast to average 3.4% this year and 2.5% in 2026, but the IMF describes this as "temporary," expecting it to fall back to 2% by the end of next year. Presenting the ITV programme alongside Susanna Reid, the money saving expert went into detail about what these figures mean. He explained: "The problem with inflation is if you talk about 3.6 per cent this year and 2.5 per cent next year, it sounds high, but it doesn't sound too high.

"But inflation is a cumulative measure. So that is 3 per cent this year, on top of all those rises, including 11 per cent that we had two or three years ago."

He continued: "Our prices are going up on top of already the huge heights that we had. 2.5 per cent next year sounds better than 3.6 per cent this year. But that's 2.5 on top of the 3.6 per cent this year, so prices will be even higher.

"That's the thing that's psychologically and financially incredibly damaging to families."

He later took aim at UK leaders from the past two decades, expressing frustration: "Let's be really honest. We have been lied to for 20 years by politicians of all parties that they can cut taxes and increase public spending. They can't and therefore they do it for electoral reasons.

"But ultimately, it breaks the long-term fabric of the economy in this country."

The presenter went on to explain that the government did not need to promise that they wouldn't raise taxes.

He said: "This electoral promise has locked the government into a straitjacket and made it unable to deal with anything that it can do at the moment and we're all suffering. We need more honesty from our politicians, including in the run up to elections. But we don't get it and we're all paying for it."