The Bank of England would risk choking off recovery with an overhasty tightening of policy to combat a temporary rise in inflation, according to both a current and soon-to-be member of the central bank’s key interest-rate-setting committee. Prof Jonathan Haskel, one of the eight members of Threadneedle Street’s monetary policy committee (MPC), said the twin headwinds of the Delta variant of the coronavirus and the withdrawal of support from the government meant “tight policy is not the right policy”. In a speech to Liverpool University, Haskel pushed back against two of his MPC colleagues, Michael Saunders and Dave Ramsden, who last week said they were contemplating voting for a tougher stance. The Bank has been surprised by the speed at which inflation has picked up since the economy started to recover after the winter lockdown but Haskel said much of the 2.5% rise was a result of one-off factors – such as the weakness of the economy during the first wave of the pandemic a year ago. “In addition, the economy is fully not recovered yet and faces two headwinds over the coming months: the highly transmissible Delta variant and a tightening of the fiscal stance,” he added. “Against this backdrop, risk-management considerations lean against a pre-emptive tightening of monetary policy until we can be more sure the economy is recovering in a manner consistent with the sustained achievement of the inflation target. For now, tight policy is not the right policy.” Haskel’s cautious comments on monetary policy were echoed by Catherine Mann, a former chief economist of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development who is due to join the MPC in September. At a hearing of the Commons Treasury select committee to confirm her appointment, Mann told MPs the recent rise in inflation was likely to prove temporary. “I have a lot of different ways of evaluating whether or not that surge appears to be continuing, transitory, or whether it appears to be a spiral. I don’t see it becoming a spiral. I am on the lookout for it but I don’t see it becoming a spiral,” she said. Mann said lessons from the global financial crisis of 2008-09 showed that worries about rising inflation on the back of a jump in oil prices and debt levels had led to a loss of economic output, which hit younger and poorer workers. “We don’t want to repeat that coming out of Covid. And so I think that bears on the need to not be premature in terms of tightening monetary policy,” she said. Haskel said the immense support provided by the Treasury and the Bank had averted deep scarring – lasting detrimental effects such as long-term unemployment – and added this might increase inflationary pressure. Even so, he made it clear he would not be voting for higher interest rates or an early end to the Bank’s bond-buying quantitative easing programme when the MPC meets early next month.