They were the words of the Bank of England's governor on Thursday while warning over the risks posed to the UK economy by the surge in global energy costs.
It does not bode well for the nation's favourite food: chips.
But a leading figure in the potato industry has told Sky News we won't see the worst until next year.
Scott Walker, the chief executive of GB Potatoes, said the way the industry works means the impact of war-linked costs will be delayed, with "inevitable" increases in 2027.
He was speaking amid government warnings of more than eight months of rising prices once the conflict in the Middle East ends, while the fish and chip shop industry sees an immediate threat to its very existence.
Rising costs for energy, cooking oil and fish are already being reflected in portion sizes or prices, according to the National Federation of Fish Fryers, which fears an acceleration in this decade's trend of shop closures.
When it comes to the humble spud, the cost of the base potato product actually remains weak due to a continuing, Europe-wide glut, according to Mr Walker, though chip shop prices could rise to help account for the extra price pressures already facing fryers themselves.
Follow the latest on the Iran war
Mr Walker explained that the vast majority of UK potato producers work to annual growing contracts with their customers, which give both growers and the likes of wholesalers and supermarkets "insurance" – a certainty over incomes and prices ahead.
"At this moment in time, people shouldn't be paying any more," he said, in good news for buyers of the many raw potato varieties in the shops.
Fertiliser, for example, was already bought for the current growing year ahead of the outbreak of the war, but Mr Walker said the outlook was more bleak.
"Down the line prices will have to rise because we have a lot of costs coming," he warned.
While growers could attempt to claim "exceptional" costs from their customers in a bid to restore some health to margins this year, Mr Walker warned the 2027 contracts would have to reflect a doubling of red diesel and some fertiliser prices.
He also highlighted higher plastic packaging charges, along with raised tax and wage demands imposed by the government.
"The average price was about 65p (a litre) for red diesel last year," he explained.
"Farmers this year have been paying about 140p, but it has dipped back to around 120p."
Mr Walker warned that much would also depend on the weather in the months ahead, with a dry summer forcing farmers to irrigate more using diesel-powered generators.
"If diesel prices remain high, that's going to be a big extra cost," he warned, signalling that planting, irrigation, harvesting and distribution costs were all flashing red.
"Sadly, rising prices are inevitable... Everyone faces rising prices: the cost of collection, living wage, (the) price of electricity for wholesalers. There's a lot of cost in the system."
What about crisps?
Mike Russell Smith, who co-founded the Savoursmiths luxury crisp brand outside Cambridge in 2016 alongside his wife, grows his own potatoes and manufactures the product on site.
He echoed Mr Walker's sentiments over the surge in costs.
He explained that a "massive oversupply" across Europe last year, due to strong crop yields, had depressed prices, but the business, at the same time, was already grappling with a doubling of sunflower oil costs due to the effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.
He pointed to rising costs for labour, harvesting, production and cold storage.
"The softer price of the potato due to the surplus of supply is going to be significantly offset by considerably higher prices in terms of energy, gas, electricity and the sunflower oil we cook the potatoes in," he explained.
On the prospect of price increases for consumers, he added: "In 2027, we'll certainly have to review things in what is a very competitive industry. There comes a point where the costs just aren't swallowable anymore."
The industry 'plea'
Mr Walker argued it was in the gift of government to help ease the burden facing the industry.
He said: "Most of it is out of our hands. The plea to government...unfortunately is a lot of the rules and regulations are adding to the burden, and we call on the government to ease those regulations and help with electricity costs.
"Access to water is a key thing for growing potatoes, so we keep asking for regulation to allow farmers to store water to secure food security."
A government spokesperson said in response: "We are taking the effects of the Iran war very seriously and are actively monitoring the potential impact of the conflict on the food and farming sector.
"The UK has a resilient food system, and at present we do not expect any impact on availability. We are continuing to meet with stakeholders, including farmers' unions, to share information on rising fuel and oil prices."
Speaking to Sky's Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Harriet Harman said it makes ministers "feel very demotivated and anxious", and it "undermines morale and perception".
The criticism of Number 10's media handling comes after our political editor Beth Rigby revealed that Sir Keir Starmer's inner team is split over whether a reshuffle should take place after the elections on 7 May.
She was told by senior government sources that the prime minister's acting chief of staff Vidhya Alakeson and key cabinet figure Darren Jones, secretary to the prime minister, are advising Sir Keir to pause on a reshuffle.
On the other side, political director Amy Richards and chief whip Johnny Reynolds are pushing for one.
Downing Street did not shut down reports this week that changes to the prime minister's top team could be incoming, simply telling journalists that they do not comment on "speculation".
Baroness Harman criticised that, telling the Electoral Dysfunction podcast: "I just feel a bit dispirited because I feel it's unwise for Number 10 to have put into the public domain the idea that if there's a bad election result on 7 May, the solution is going to be a reshuffle.
"Firstly, because if he [Starmer] decides that he doesn't want to do a reshuffle after 7 May, because of all the speculation that has been running that there's going to be one, it will look as if he hasn't done a reshuffle because he wanted to, but he's just not strong enough."
Reshuffle talk also "makes secretaries of state and ministers feel insecure", pointing to reporting that the technology secretary, Liz Kendall, could be among those to go.
"She's going to feel very demotivated and anxious," said Baroness Harman.
"But also her diary secretary's going to think, 'why should I bust a gut to get all these appointments in her diary for the second half of May or June? Because she's probably not going to be in her job.'"
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'It undermines morale'
She went on to explain that outside organisations planning meetings or conferences with Ms Kendall, or other ministers facing the chop, could "hold fire" because someone else might be in the job.
Baroness Harman added: "It's unwise, even if they were planning to do a reshuffle and were absolutely certain on it, but it's even more unwise if it's actually not yet decided.
"So this is another handling issue – it undermines morale and perception."
Starmer in 'precarious position'
Beth Rigby explained on the podcast how she learnt on Wednesday of the discussions in Downing Street about a potential cabinet reshuffle.
The split in the prime minister's team, she said, "tells you a lot" about his position.
It's a "high stakes" moment for the government, Rigby said, adding: "The fact we've been talking about this is a reflection of the precarious predicament… the prime minister is in."
Cheshire Constabulary said seven men and three women, aged between 30 and 44, were detained during an operation at sites operated by the Ahmadi Religion of Peace and Light on Wednesday.
Officers said they were investigating allegations dating back to 2023 involving one victim, a woman, who was a member of the group at the time.
The force initially said nine people had been arrested, but later updated the figure to 10 on Thursday.
More than 500 officers were involved in the raids and searches at three properties in the town, including a former orphanage called Webb House in Crewe, with around 150 people said to be living there.
The Ahmadi religious community, which is linked to a branch of Islam, moved to Cheshire in 2021 from Sweden, buying and basing themselves at Webb House.
On Friday, the force said the suspects - of American, Mexican, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, British, German and Egyptian nationalities - had been released on bail pending further inquiries.
Police added that they were all subject to bail conditions and they had applied for Slavery and Trafficking Risk Orders against five of the suspects.
The application for the civil orders, which place additional restrictions on individuals, is due to be heard before magistrates on Friday.
A number of welfare centres have been set up to look after 56 children who were all home-schooled and part of the local Ahmadi group, which was founded by Abdullah Hashem, who is reportedly an Egyptian-American.
The force also said they had charged 25 people with public order offences, alleged to have taken place while officers were carrying out Wednesday's raids.
Those people are due to appear before magistrates next month.
Chief Superintendent Gareth Wrigley said the arrests are "not an investigation into the religion" but "solely focuses on the serious allegations which have been reported to us".
"Following the warrants, we are continuing to work closely [with] our partners to provide the appropriate advice and safeguarding to other members of the group," he added in a statement.
Police said the investigation has been supported by officers from Europol, the Swedish Police Authority and the Garda in the Republic of Ireland.
Lindsay and Craig Foreman, both aged 53, from East Sussex, were sentenced to 10 years in February after ​Iranian authorities accused them of spying for Britain and Israel.
They were arrested in January 2025 while travelling through the country on an around-the-world motorcycle trip from Europe to Australia.
Both have been locked up inside Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, where British-Iranian Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was held for five years, and say they have been kept in squalid conditions while forced to wait months for basic medical treatment.
They deny the Iranian allegations, with Ms Foreman describing the charges in an diary entry as "a joke; lies and nonsense".
"I am dealing with the realisation that we are likely to be here for a long time yet," Ms Foreman said, as she spoke of brutal conditions in her women's dormitory, surrounded by inmates on death row.
Since the US and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran in February, the couple said they are a "life-threatening situation" as the jail is in an active war zone.
Previously it was hit by Israeli rockets on 23 June last year, killing at least 80 people, including one child and eight women, the day before a ceasefire ended a 12-day war with Iran.
Mr Foreman told how four of his cellmates have been executed during his time in detention.
He described a pattern in which prisoners are told they have a family visit, then are taken away and killed - with their deaths confirmed the following day when their faces appear on prison television.
These inmates were said to have been executed for reasons such as, having a business connection with an American company, and another in which two WhatsApp messages were sent to the wrong recipient.
Fights between inmates, some carrying makeshift weapons, are a regular feature of his wing, which houses prisoners of multiple nationalities, he said.
In a defiant message to the British government, he said: "We are innocent people. We have committed no offence. Just take action. Speak out. Get us out. It seems to me we're sitting here like sitting ducks."
Ms Foreman is held separately in a women's dormitory, with her diary painting a stark picture of poor sanitation, scarce food, and a near-total absence of medical care.
As the only non-Iranian woman in her wing, she described growing hostility: "People say, 'Why is your government not doing more?'"
Other fellow inmates include protesters and religious minorities imprisoned for offences that "we cannot comprehend in the life we lead in a free country".
Ms Foreman takes part in a weekly hunger strike in protest at ongoing executions as she continues to record entries in her diary.
She writes of repurposing the previous evening's prison meal as the next day's lunch, stretching what she has.
Communication with their son Joe Bennett was cut off entirely for seven months, with contact now through monitored phone calls.
"Those challenges that seem insignificant outside are massively important here," she said.
In March, in her first interview since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on 28 February, she described prisoners "hyperventilating" and "screaming" when bombs were going off in the first four nights of the war.
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Ms Foreman's most recent contact with the British Ambassador "left her without optimism", her family said.
The couple's latest revelations follow a statement by UK Middle East minister Hamish Falconer, who told Parliament recently that the couple were "innocent tourists", intensifying calls for urgent diplomatic intervention.
In his second call with the couple this year, the British ambassador to Iran, Hugo Shorter, advised them to prepare for a prolonged period of detention - a message their family describes as "deeply alarming" given how long they have already served in prison.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) described the jail sentences the pair received as "completely appalling and totally unjustifiable" - saying their welfare is a "priority" for the government.
But the family argues that the UK government's acknowledgment of the couple's innocence must be matched by stronger action and are calling on the UK's foreign secretary to raise the case directly and publicly with Iranian authorities.
They also urge ministers to move beyond private diplomacy to sustained public pressure, and international partners to coordinate efforts to secure the couple's release.
The Foreign Office has been approached for comment.
MPs from a key Commons committee declared they had no confidence in South East Water's (SEW) leadership to turn the company around after a litany of failures.
SEW on Friday announced the resignation of independent non-executive chairman Chris Train, effective immediately.
The company was described as "devoid of proper leadership" and "riddled with cultural problems" in a new report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee.
It criticised SEW's chief executive David Hinton, and called for a reset of the company's attitudes - and argued "change at this scale requires SEW's leadership to change".
Bosses were questioned twice by the committee over their response to multiple supply interruptions across Kent and Sussex.
Alistair Carmichael, Liberal Democrat MP for Orkney and Shetland and chair of the cross-party committee, said: "Someone in this company needs to take a grip, be accountable for its failings and put them right."
SEW said board discussions had taken place in recent weeks regarding the company's recovery and transformation plan.
It said: "As part of this, the board and Chris considered the leadership of South East Water and mutually agreed that new independent board leadership is now required to oversee a critical period of positive, transformative change for the company, its customers, and local communities."
Following the announcement of Mr Train's departure, Lisa Clement, interim independent non-executive chair, said: "The board thanks Chris for his service to South East Water.
"The company's focus remains on delivering engineering and operational changes that will strengthen the resilience of South East Water's network and transform the company for the benefit of customers and local communities."
The rebuke from MPs followed a major water outage in late 2025, which left tens of thousands of customers in Tunbridge Wells without drinking water for two weeks.
Ofwat, the water regulator in England and Wales, has been consulting on issuing a fine of up to 8% of SEW's annual turnover (£22.46m) due to significant supply failures and poor customer service between 2020 and 2023.
The committee of MPs also asked shareholders in SEW – Utilities Trust of Australia, NatWest Group Pension Fund and Desjardins Group and associated holding companies – to hold the company to account.
Tunbridge Wells community group Dry Wells Action called for the resignation of Mr Hinton, and for the company to appoint consumers to its board as non-executive directors to ensure their voice is "no longer overlooked".
Of Mr Train's announcement, the group said: "Resignation is the correct decision. The real question is how Hinton thinks he cannot follow suit."
It also called on the government to order regulators to join the board during a probationary period while it was assessed on whether it should retain its licence.
Failure to carry out routine cleaning and water tests
A lack of water jar testing – to ensure water quality – by SEW at its Pembury Treatment Works, where various failures led to the two-week outage in Tunbridge Wells, was highlighted in the report.
Despite having been advised by the Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) to carry out the tests, it failed to do so.
This meant the water company was "flying blind" at the time of last year's water outage.
Alongside this, the DWI said routine maintenance and cleaning were not undertaken at Pembury before the Tunbridge Wells incident.
The committee argued that insufficient resourcing and plans to tackle these problems have been implemented since 2019, despite being costed in many cases.
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The report was most scathing in its assessment of SEW's leadership team, saying they had a "clear pattern" of blaming factors outside of their control "despite clear evidence to the contrary".
"There is also a clear culture of obfuscating responsibility that is seriously inhibiting their ability to analyse problems and learn lessons," it added.
SEW said in a statement: "The board and executive team reiterate their unreserved apology to those customers impacted by recent operational failures, and the resulting loss of public trust in the company and its services."
The company said it planned to double investment in the water supply network serving Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire, and Berkshire over the next five years.