BRITAIN urgently needs a pay rise, trade union leaders demanded today as inflation hit a new 30-year high, deepening the nation’s “brutal” cost-of-living crisis.

Consumer prices rose by 5.5 per cent in the 12 months to January, up from 5.4 per cent in December, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).  

This is the highest level seen since March 1992, when inflation stood at 7.1 per cent.