The Bank of England’s nine-strong monetary policy committee has the task of maintaining inflation at 2% over the medium term, or three years ahead. Despite a forecast showing the consumer prices index (CPI) measure of inflation will hit 5% in the new year, the committee voted 7-2 against raising interest rates, instead keeping them at 0.1% – their lowest on record.

Doves (voted to hold)

Andrew Bailey (governor) – Last month Bailey was a hawk, talking about taking action to bring down inflation. At the MPC’s November meeting he switched sides, citing contradictory economic data for wanting to hold fire.

Sir Jon Cunliffe (deputy governor for financial markets) – known for concerns about the weakness of the UK economy, the former Whitehall mandarin has long voted to keep rates low.

Ben Broadbent (deputy governor) – the former Goldman Sachs economist said energy prices were driving inflation and it was unclear how long they would take to fall, clouding the outlook for a while.

Huw Pill (chief economist) – Only a few months into the job, Pill wrote a hawkish speech last month that appeared to ally him with Bailey, only to vote against a rate rise.

Jonathan Haskell – a former Imperial College economics professor, Haskell argued in the summer that the scars from the pandemic will be few and the economy should rebound strongly, though it will be a while before he is prepared to vote for a rate rise.

Silvana Tenreyro – a former professor at London School of Economics, Tenreyro argued strongly during the pandemic emergency for the MPC to consider negative rates.

Catherine Mann – drafted in this year from her role as global chief economist at US bank Citi, she straddled both camps, voting against a rate rise, but for capping the BoE’s quantitative easing (QE) programme at GBP875bn, reducing the total from GBP895bn.

Hawks (voted for a rise)

Sir Dave Ramsden (deputy governor for markets and banking) – Concerned about the prospects for rampant wage rises over the next few years that will ignite an inflationary spiral, the former Treasury economist voted last month to cap QE at GBP855bn.

Michael Saunders – the former head of European economics at Citi has voted several times to reduce the BoE’s stimulus for the economy, arguing that it was fuelling expectations of higher inflation.