WORKERS are “paying a high price for 12 years of Tory misrule,” trade unions said today after the Bank of England warned that Britain faces the longest recession since records began a century ago.

Bank governor Andrew Bailey predicted a “very tough road ahead” for households as he announced a 0.75 per cent interest rise, taking the bank’s base rate to 3 per cent, the biggest jump since 1989.

Mr Bailey, who urged workers earlier this year to show “wage restraint” despite inflation running at a four-decade high, estimated that unemployment could nearly double as the economy continues to contract into 2024.

The TUC warned that working people would feel the pain after the Conservatives “crashed the economy,” a reference to disgraced former prime minister Liz Truss, who was forced from office after just 50 days following a run on the pound sparked by her fiscal policies.

The former foreign secretary’s promise to “deliver for the British people” became a dead letter when then chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng pledged to use borrowed money to fund tax cuts for the richest, spooking the market, nearly wiping out pension funds and prompting banks to push up mortgage interest payments.

The TUC head of economics Kate Bell warned of a “bleak recession this winter,” saying: “We need a new economic plan with growing wages and strong public services at its heart.

“And we need a general election now to replace the party that created this crisis.”

GMB general secretary Gary Smith condemned the “train wreck of an economy the Conservatives have created,” adding: “We will all end up suffering thanks to the Tories’ terrible economic experiment.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt claimed that his priority was to “restore stability, sort out our public finances and get debt falling,” but his Labour counterpart Rachel Reeves pointed out that families now face “higher mortgages and more anxiety after months of economic chaos.

“The recession warning lays bare how 12 years of Tory government has weakened the foundations of our economy and left us exposed to shocks, lurching from crisis to crisis with falling living standards and low growth,” the Leeds West MP added.

She urged former chancellor and new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to “face up to his mistakes that have led to the vicious cycle of stagnation this Tory government has trapped us in.

“Working people are paying the price for Tory failure — Britain deserves more than this.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham demanded that the Bank of England immediately tackle the country’s “epidemic of profiteering.”

She accused the institution — granted independence by New Labour in 1997 — of letting profits rip while calling for wages to be pegged back.

“It remains remarkable that, despite all the evidence, the bank is refusing to acknowledge that profiteering must be tackled to deal with inflation.

“The Bank of England and the Treasury want workers and communities to pay the price every time.

“They attack wages, they line us up for another round of austerity and now they pile on more misery for those already with personal debt burdens.

“These are choices and they don’t have to make them.”

The call coincided with a Survation poll showing that more than half of workers, 54 per cent, cannot their bill in the coming months or will have difficulty doing so. 

The survey of 6,000 adults nationwide, carried out on behalf of Unite, also revealed that 27 per cent have already sunk into debt just to stay afloat, while 14 per cent are facing food poverty.

And 70 per cebt have experienced a real-terms pay cut, despite the union’s research suggesting that the profits of Britain’s top companies have nearly doubled.