YET another rise in interest rates will hit workers while allowing “profiteering banks to pick the pockets of householders across Britain,” unions warned today.

The intervention came after the Bank of England introduced an 11th-successive increase in its base rate — by 0.25 per cent to 4.25 per cent — following an unexpected rise in already 40-year high double-digit inflation last month.

The independent bank’s boss Andrew Bailey, who has called for workers to show “wage restraint” despite soaring price rises, with the CPI figure hitting 10.4 per cent in February, attempted to strike an optimistic note, suggesting the British economy is “resilient.”