Martin Weale has joined fellow Bank of England policymaker Andrew Sentance in voting for interest rates to rise from the current historic low of 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent.

Minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee's most recent meeting reveal that the case for raising rates was explicitly discussed in a January meeting.

However, Tuesday's shock news that GDP growth has contracted and warnings that inflation could hit 5 per cent has affected decision making.

On Tuesday, Governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, forecast that inflation could rise to 4-5 per cent because of higher fuel and food prices and a rise in VAT.

However, he added that inflation would fall back in 2012 once the impact of the factors boosting it had dissipated.

Weale's vote has led analysists to observe that there is now a clear tightening bias within the MPC.

Despite severe weather hitting activity in the quarter, the Office for National Statistics said that economic growth would still have been "flattish" even if there had been no winter freeze.

Economist Vicky Redwood believes that the sudden reduction in GDP makes it less likely that there will be a rate rise.

The MPC minutes also reveal that Adam Posen repeated his call for a £50 billion expansion to the Bank of England's quantative easing programme.