Former Conservative pensions minister Baroness Ros Altmann says it is “highly likely” the Bank of England will need to continue with its emergency bond-buying programme beyond the 14 October deadline, claiming it is “oblivious to its own role” in the market meltdown that has caused a crisis among UK pension funds.

“There are many causes of the current situation, with responsibility shared between the Bank of England’s monetary policy handling, the chancellor’s fiscal announcements [and] the regulatory encouragement of supposedly low-risk liability matching investments,” Altmann told Financial News.