Rachel Reeves is the new Steve Jobs, says Cabinet minister
A Cabinet minister has been ridiculed for comparing Rachel Reeves to the creator of the iPhone.
In an attempt to defend Labour's spending plans, Peter Kyle, the Technology Secretary, said the Chancellor was fixing the public finances in much the same way Steve Jobs saved Apple from the brink of bankruptcy in the late 1990s.
Mr Kyle's comments prompted a swift backlash from the Tories, who argued it was ridiculous to liken Jobs's achievements to Ms Reeves's record tax rises on businesses.
The Chancellor launched a £40 billion tax raid in her first Budget last year, including an increase in employers' National Insurance contributions.
At the spending review on Wednesday, she will announce departmental budgets for the next three years.
The process has involved a significant amount of wrangling behind the scenes as ministers attempt to dodge expected real-term cuts.
Challenged on where the money was coming from for his department, Mr Kyle told the Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips show on Sky News that the Government is going 'to be investing record amounts of money into the innovations of the future '.
'Just bear in mind how Apple turned itself around … when Steve Jobs came back to Apple, they were 90 days from insolvency,' he said.
'That's the kind of situation that we had when we came into office. Now, Steve Jobs turned it around by inventing the iMac, moving to a series of products like the iPod.
'Now we are starting to invest in the vaccine processes of the future, some of the high-tech solutions that are going to be high growth. We're investing in our space sector … they will create jobs in the future.'
Mr Jobs, who co-founded Apple in 1976, was credited with rescuing the company from collapse in 1997, when it teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in the face of competition from Microsoft.
He died aged 56 in 2011 after a long battle with cancer. At the time, floods of tributes described him as a 'visionary' whose impact would be felt for many generations to come.
Labour has long blamed 'difficult' decisions on tax and spending on the 'dire' state of the economy they inherited from the Conservatives.
However, the Tories claimed that comparing Ms Reeves to Mr Jobs was inappropriate.
Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, told The Telegraph: 'Labour are plumbing new depths of delusion. Steve Jobs, creator of Apple and the iPhone, improved life for billions of people.
'In contrast, Rachel Reeves has trashed the UK economy, spending billions of pounds that we don't have in the process.
'This comment just shows Labour have not the faintest understanding of business.'
Greg Smith, the shadow business minister, added: 'Kyle's comments are a little far of the mark.
'Steve Jobs created a mega international business from scratch and Rachel Reeves is actively preventing anyone doing that in the UK, ripping businesses apart, increasing tax and red tape. Apart from that, yeah, they're identical.'
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