The Bank of England has begun to reverse its programme of quantitative easing, which began in 2009 when the country faced a deep recession and banks were not lending to each other. Under the programme, they purchased Government Bonds from financial institutions which provided liquidity to the market.

This drove interest rates to historic lows and encouraged businesses to continue to borrow money to fund expansion and speed recovery.

The BoE sold a relatively small number of bonds, valued at around £750 million, out of its stock of around £850 billion.

The UK is the first G7 nation to begin to withdraw support.

There have been calls for Sunak to extend the windfall tax on energy companies that he introduced when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer, as BP announced its third quarter profits yesterday.