Wes Streeting pointed the finger at Brexit for Labour’s miserable first 15 months in power today.
The Health Secretary complained the government is still having to ‘deal with’ the fallout from leaving the EU as he admitted Brits are struggling under the weight of tax.
Extraordinarily, he suggested Labour now wants to have a ‘debate’ about the consequences, nearly a decade after the referendum vote.
The explosive intervention heralds a new approach from Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves – trying to blame Brexiteers including Nigel Farage for the state of the country.
The Chancellor is expected to attack the Reform leader and trade disruption as she imposes another wave of tax hikes to fill an estimated £30billion hole in the public finances.
That is despite critics arguing that Ms Reeves’ own policies have triggered an economic slowdown and rising borrowing costs.
Mr Streeting’s comments came as he appeared at the Cliveden Literary Festival, according to The Times.
The Cabinet minister admitted he feels ‘anxious’ because of the ‘deep structural problems’ facing the UK.
‘We had over a decade of low productivity, low growth, and therefore you end up a with high burden of taxation and people paying more through their taxes and feeling they are getting less because they are,’ he said.
Asked how Brexit was to blame, Mr Streeting said: ‘It’s part of it. There’s no doubt that that’s the other problem we’re dealing with.’
Effectively confirming Labour’s new tactics of attacking Brexit, he said: ‘I’m glad that Brexit is a problem whose name we now dare speak.’
Mr Streeting stressed he had ‘enormous respect’ for people who wanted to ‘take back control’ in the referendum.
But he insisted there had not been enough debate about the problems it has caused.
‘This has been my frustration about it … we were warned it was going to have an economic impact and it has. And it’s hit our country hard, so we’re having to deal with Brexit,’ he said.
‘We’re having to deal with the structural problems in the British economy, and we are doing that by creating stability and the conditions in which people can invest confidently in our country, recognising that governments don’t create growth, but we can help to create the conditions for businesses to grow and thrive, and that’s what we’ve got to do.’
He added: ‘We’re also trying to have a more rational conversation with our biggest and nearest trading partners, the European Union, by resetting that relationship, and beginning to build back what we have lost.’
Tory MP Mark Francois – chair of the European Reform Group – told the Daily Mail: ‘I like Wes and his trying to grapple with NHS bureaucracy but on the EU he’s just plain wrong.
His boss the PM likes to flaunt his recent bilateral trade deals, with the likes of India and the US, none of which could have even been negotiated whilst we were still in the EU.
‘If our taxes are going up again next month, it won’t be due to Brexit but to Labour’s ‘doom loop’ economics.’
