Rachel Reeves making ‘even bigger mistakes' than Liz Truss, says Kemi Badenoch
'For all their mocking of Liz Truss, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have not learnt the lessons of the mini-budget and are making even bigger mistakes,' Mrs Badenoch wrote in The Telegraph.
'They continue to borrow more and more, unable and unwilling to make the spending cuts needed to balance the books.'
Short-lived Conservative prime minister Ms Truss's mini-budget spooked the financial markets in 2022 and led to a spike in mortgage rates.
'As we all saw in 2022, the Chancellor and the Prime Minister are reliant on the bond markets,' Mrs Badenoch added.
'Yet those bond markets are increasingly jittery about the levels of borrowing today with no balancing spending decreases.
'Rachel Reeves's unfunded series of U-turns have only added to the pressure. She is boxed in by her party on one side, and her fiscal rules on the other.'
The Chancellor earlier admitted Labour had 'disappointed' people while in Government, but said that the Government had got the balance right between tax, spending and borrowing.
She told an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival that balancing the books meant making tough decisions, even if the are unpopular.
Appearing on the Iain Dale All Talk Fringe show, she said: 'The reason people voted Labour at the last election is they want to change and they were unhappy with the way that the country was being governed.
'They know that we inherited a mess. They know it's not easy to put it right, but people are impatient for change.
'I'm impatient for change as well, but I've also got the job of making sure the sums always add up – and it doesn't always make you popular because you can't do anything you might want to do. You certainly can't do everything straight away, all at once.'
Ms Reeves pointed to Labour's £200 million investment in carbon capture in the north-east of Scotland, which she said was welcomed by the industry.
At the same time, Labour's windfall tax, she said, was not liked by the sector.
'I can understand that that's extra tax that the oil and gas sector are paying, but you can't really have one without the other,' she said.
Defending Labour's record, she said her party had the 'balance about right'.
'But of course you're going to disappoint people,' she added. 'No-one wants to pay more taxes.
'Everyone wants more money than public spending – and borrowing is not a free option, because you've got to pay for it.
'I think people know those sort of constraints, but no-one really likes them and I'm the one, I guess, that has to sort the sums up.'
Ms Reeves said Labour had to deliver on its general election campaign of change, adding that her party did not 'deserve' to win the next election if it does not deliver the change it promised.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Concrete sales plunge to 62-year low as hopes for Labour's building boom fade
Demand for concrete has fallen to its lowest level since 1963 in a serious blow to Labour's hopes of building more houses. Sales of ready-mixed concrete fell by 11.5pc in the three months to June against the previous three months, according to data from the Mineral Products Association (MPA), which represents producers. The product is widely-used in housebuilding to lay foundations, and provide the base for flooring and driveways. The figures suggest that Labour will miss its target of building 1.5m new homes by the end of this Parliament 'by a significant margin', the MPA said. Concrete sales have fallen by a third in 10 years, and more than halved over the last 20 years. The drop means that annual sales have not been this low since 1963 – before the nationwide housing and infrastructure building boom that transformed Britain. The MPA said that sales of other building materials, such as mortar and sand, also fell, with demand for most products at 'historically low levels'.
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Nigel Farage under pressure to distance himself from 'racist' Ant Middleton rant
Ant Middleton - who has been close with Nigel Farage and posed with him ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration in Washington - said first, second and third generation immigrants should be banned from top government jobs Pressure is mounting on Nigel Farage to distance himself from TV hardman Ant Middleton after he was accused of "overt racism". The former soldier sparked an outcry after claiming that first, second and third generation immigrants should be barred from "top tier government positions". Middleton - who gave a speech at last year's Reform conference and has been linked with a mayoral run for the party - was pictured smiling with Mr Farage and treasurer Nick Candy in Washington DC ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration in January. The ex-SAS: Who Dares Wins host has said he will stand to be London mayor - and claimed to be "very much aligned" with Reform. Mr Farage now faces calls to clarify if he condones the remarks by Middleton or cut ties with him. It comes after a Nigel Farage watchdog probe was revealed to centres on a mysterious fishing boat. In an outburst on Twitter /X, the former Special Forces commando wrote: "Our Capital City of our Christian country needs to be run by a native Brit with generational Christian values, principles and morals coursing through their veins from which our very society was built, thrived and was forged upon." By Middleton's criteria, Winston Churchill, whose mother was born in Brooklyn, Boris Johnson and King Charles would not qualify for high office. Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty responded on Twitter: "This level of overt racism shows who he really is once he lets the mask slip." He told The Mirror: 'After his starring role as a leading speaker at the Reform party conference last year, Ant Middleton's campaign to be the Mayor of London is increasingly being characterised with dangerous rhetoric that stokes division. "Given his prison sentence for assaulting a police officer and ban from being a company director over £1m in unpaid taxes he shouldn't even pass Reform's vetting process. With Nigel Farage claiming to be tough on crime he should clarify whether he supports the views of his likely candidate to be mayor of our capital; a man who doesn't even live in the country, let alone London.' A Labour Party spokeswoman said: 'These racist comments are completely unacceptable and have no place in our politics or our society. Nigel Farage has shared appearances at Reform UK events with Ant Middleton, but is yet to distance himself from these remarks or clarify whether he condones them. "Farage must urgently confirm that Reform UK will immediately cut all ties with Middleton.' Dubai-based Middleton, who was jailed in 2013 for wounding a male police officer and assaulting a female PC, vowed that if he becomes Mayor he will "prioritise the indigenous people" above all. In June he claimed rumours that Mr Farage was looking elsewhere for a candidate were "incorrect". He said: "We are still very much aligned and no such drifting away has happened. "However I have always voiced an option to run independently which may have been a cause of certain rumours!" He was loudly applauded at Reform's conference in Birmingham last September, when he was presented as an expert in security. Middleton told the audience: 'We are at a very, very important and crucial stage before it teeters into civil unrest, which we want to avoid at all costs, but it's coming. We're on that edge where violence has hit the streets, we've all seen it, I don't need to mention what it is, we've all seen it.' And voicing his support for the party he said: "I know enough about modern day politics to realise that it's not working here in the UK. Hence, the solution is in the title Reform." Last year Mr Farage posted a photo of himself alongside Middleton, who he described as "the big man". And he was snapped alongside Mr Farage and billionaire property tycoon Mr Candy with the White House in the background in January. The TV host was a controversial figure long before his appearance at the event in Birmingham. He was dropped by Channel 4 in March 2021 after tweeting about the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. He moved to Dubai, telling GB News last year that people in the UK are "just stuck in a rut". In 2012 he body-slammed PC Christopher Brooksbank outside a nightclub and assaulted PC Katherine Alison. He was given a 14-month jail sentence the following year. He told The Mirror in 2015: "I was shocked by how I acted. I'm very ashamed of it, hence why I've put it behind me." And he said he had written to both officers to apologise. But he now claims he "never laid a finger on a woman". In March Middleton was banned from being a company director after his firm Sway and Starting failed to pay over £1million in tax. The Insolvency Service said he and wife Emilie were "taking millions of pounds out of" the company when they should have been paying tax. Sway and Starting, which provided media representation services, went into liquidation in 2022. At the time it owed £300,000 in VAT and £800,000 in corporation tax.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Like Clement Attlee, Keir Starmer must rise to the occasion
Martin Kettle rightly says Aneurin Bevan is the one politician other than Clement Attlee whom Labour leaders regularly invoke (Critics say Starmer is no Attlee – and they're right. Labour must look to the future, not the past, 31 July). Keir Starmer has drawn on Harold Wilson for inspiration, but more pertinent to Kettle's argument is David Lammy claiming a role model in Ernest Bevin. Made minister of labour in 1940 and foreign secretary in 1945, Ernie Bevin dominated the decade. Bevin sought a continued US military presence in Europe but had no illusions about the 'special relationship'. The 1956 Suez crisis was a calamitous reality check, confirming the White House's prioritising of US self-interest above any presumed obligation to an ally, however close. Larry Elliott's pessimism over Trump's trade deal with Europe is understandable (This trade deal is the EU's Suez moment – its subservience to Trump is on show for all to see, 31 July), but the EU can take heart from how France responded to the United States torpedoing its joint effort with the UK to regain control of the Suez canal: a renewed commitment to pan-European economic collaboration saw the swift confirmation of a six-nation common market, and a determination that French foreign policy would never again be subject to transatlantic pressure saw the Fourth and then the Fifth Republic develop its own advanced weaponry, both conventional and nuclear. Had Attlee, not Eden, been prime minister in 1956, we can be certain that he would never have sanctioned collusion with France and Israel to invade Egypt, and then repeatedly denied having done so. Attlee's greatest quality wasn't succinctness – it was SmithEmeritus professor of modern history, University of Southampton I do not feel Martin Kettle is entirely fair or correct to say that Clement Attlee, on becoming prime minister, 'pulled Britain out of India as fast as he could'. Attlee had been closely involved in India for more than 20 years, going back to the Simon commission, which had been established in 1927, specifically to consider the possibility of Indian independence and self-rule. As an MP and a member of the commission, Attlee visited India several times before the war (no mean feat in those days), understood the issues and knew the leaders of the political parties and factions. He did not underestimate the problems that independence might bring (although certainly not the violence and bloodshed), noting that partition would 'necessarily leave minorities in both states' but emphasising that his Labour government was 'in earnest in seeking to implement the promises made by Britain'. Eighty years on, another Labour prime minister now faces similar challenges over Palestine. I am sure Keir Starmer, like his distinguished predecessor, will rise to the EvansFormer chair of the south Asia delegation, European parliament Martin Kettle's interesting article on Clement Attlee referred to his wife driving him to Buckingham Palace to meet King George VI on his historic 1945 victory over Churchill. Mrs Attlee was apparently a notoriously bad driver. My late father told me Mrs Attlee once collided with his car when driving the prime minister on a foggy night in London. Fortunately, no one was ArnfieldVancouver, Canada Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
