When Labour won the General Election Rachel Reeves promised ‘a new era for economic growth’.
Growth, she declared, was her ‘number one mission’.
She vowed to ‘fix Britain’s economic foundations’ and make ‘every part of the country better off’.
Today, that promise lies in tatters. The UK has been slapped with the biggest growth downgrade in the G7 – a damning verdict on the Chancellor’s record.
On a per-person basis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) says our growth prospects for this year are now bottom of the table. Far from leading a new era of prosperity, Britain is now lagging behind because of Rachel Reeves’ choices. It’s an utter humiliation for the self-styled ‘Iron Chancellor’.
And Reeves can’t say she wasn’t warned. From the start, the signs were there. Her first Budget didn’t back business, it battered it. A National Insurance hike that punished job creators. Business rate increases that squeezed the life out of hospitality. And now, the looming threat of the first fuel duty rise in 15 years. One bad decision might be misfortune but this is a pattern.
What we’re seeing now is the inevitable result of Labour’s mistakes. Inflation driven higher. Unemployment heading skyward. Businesses closing their doors. Families feeling poorer. Britain stuck with the highest inflation in the G7 just as a fresh shock hits our economy from the conflict in the Middle East.
And still Reeves and Ed Miliband refuse to row back on their net zero obsession that leaves us reliant on imported energy while our own oil and gas sits untapped.
Incredibly, Reeves is telling the world to ‘follow my plan’. But why would anyone want to replicate what she has done to Britain’s economy?
If this is the blueprint, it’s a masterclass in how to stall an economy. Tax more. Spend more. Get poorer.
It’s not just misguided, it’s economically illiterate. Reeves must own this. Every downgrade, every closure, every squeezed household budget, it all traces back to choices made in Downing Street.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Under Kemi Badenoch, the Conservatives offer a better path – one built on backing business and those who work.
We would rein in the ballooning welfare bill, get more people into work, drill the North Sea and restore discipline to the public finances.
We would back British business, not bash it – cutting taxes, easing the burden of regulation and unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit that has always driven this country forward.
Because Britain’s best days can still lie ahead of us.
Sir Mel Stride is the Shadow Chancellor
