Rubbish Check
Daily Mail Money · 17 September 2026
source“Bank of England holds rates at 3.75% but warns borrowing costs may need to rise in coming months amid inflation fears”
R2/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates Daily Mail Money's claim that the Bank of England "holds rates at 3.75% but warns borrowing costs may need to rise" a 2/10, because the framing is a near-direct paraphrase of Governor Andrew Bailey's own conditional statement and the BoE's confirmed 6-3 vote split.
The Verdict
Lightly altered. The headline compresses Bailey's hedged, conditional language ("the longer this volatility persists… the more likely it is we will need to raise Bank Rate") into a slightly more definite "warns… may need to rise," which is a small tightening but not a distortion. Everything else in the headline, the hold, the level, the inflation-driven backdrop, checks out against the primary source.
What actually happened
The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee voted 6-3 to hold Bank Rate at 3.75%, with three members wanting an immediate 0.25 point hike to 4%. Governor Andrew Bailey said limited pass-through from energy costs to date, but flagged that persistent volatility raises the odds of a future hike to keep inflation on target for the 2% goal.
Key facts
- BoE held Bank Rate at 3.75% in a 6-3 vote, with three members voting to raise Bank Rate by 0.25 percentage points to 4%, confirmed directly by the Bank's own Monetary Policy Summary.
- UK CPI inflation stood at 3.1% in August, up from 2.9% the prior month, matching the article's figures and corroborated independently as inflation hitting a five-month high of 3.1% in outside coverage.
- Core inflation (stripping food/energy) held at 2.6% for a fourth straight month, per the article, a detail that undercuts the "inflation fears" framing somewhat since it points to limited second-round effects.
- Economists cited in the piece put inflation on track to reach 4% by the new year if energy volatility persists, roughly double the BoE's 2% target.
- This marked the Fed hiking to 4% the same week while the BoE held, described independently as the BoE being "the last one standing" among major central banks not raising rates.
What to watch for
Watch whether core inflation (steady at 2.6%) starts moving if energy costs stay elevated. That's the "second-round effects" signal the ING economists quoted in the piece say hasn't materialised yet, and it will determine whether Bailey's conditional warning becomes an actual hike at the next meeting or gets walked back as a false alarm.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
