Our new calculator reveals how much of a salary hike you need to keep up with the spiralling cost of living under Labour.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves' painful tax raid on businesses has driven inflation up.

Prices have jumped by 4.1% in a year in the UK, faster than any other G7 economy.

Air fares and food prices are among the factors driving the surge in costs, which prompted shadow chancellor Mel Stride to say that 'Britain can't afford Labour'.

To keep up with rising costs, your income would need to rise by the same percentage amount to just be in the same position you were in a year earlier. So if you earn £50,000, your income would have to go up by £2,100 (4.1%) to £52,100 to not lose out.

Our calculator – powered by official figures – tells you exactly how much your salary needs to be hiked by to keep up with inflation.

The Office for National Statistics tracks the changing costs of hundreds of everyday items, including food, energy and transport.

Statisticians routinely update this hypothetical 'basket of goods' to reflect how consumers' buying habits change, for example virtual reality headsets and pulled pork were added this year, while DVD rentals and fresh turkey mince were removed.

This measure, CPIH (Consumer Price Index including owner occupiers' housing costs), also includes some housing costs, making it a well-rounded measure.

The Bank of England has a target to keep a similar measure, CPI, which does not include owner-occupier costs, at around 2%, but this is currently at 3.8%.

Labour inherited a rate of 2.2% in last July.

Wages have been outstripping inflation consistently for the past two years, but that growth has slowed off in recent months.

Inflation reached grim heights of 9.6% in October 2022 but has fallen sharply since.

However, lower inflation does not mean that prices are going down, just rising less rapidly.

Price hikes were caused by demands in oil and gas prices after the pandemic, and a further surge was caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Critics say much of the recent surge in inflation has been caused by the Chancellor's £25billion raid on employer national insurance, as well as a big increase in the minimum wage, which has made it more expensive to hire staff.

That has resulted in many firms passing on the costs in the form of higher prices – or in other cases cutting back the workforce.

The Food and Drink Federation, representing manufacturers, said the industry was being 'squeezed on all sides' by high energy and ingredient costs as well as Labour's new packaging tax and NI hike.