In his response to the Spring Statement in the House of Commons today, Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride said that despite the positive OBR projections outlined in the Statement, the figures should be a “cold, hard reckoning.”
Stride said that despite previously growing at the fastest rate in the G7 about a year ago, the OBR found that growth has been halved this year as a consequence of Labour’s choices.
He added that during Rachel Reeves’ tenure as Chancellor so far, inflation is “running at twice the levels forecast under [the Conservatives] in 2024.”
Despite geopolitical trends affecting the market, Stride warned that Reeves was “the architect of her own misfortune,” and the reason that business confidence had “crashed through the floor.”
He added: “She borrowed and spent and taxed like it was the 1970s[…] The Chancellor likes to tour the television studios and tell everybody they should be thankful that she will not be ramping up taxes in this emergency Budget as she did before.
“But that will be cold comfort to the millions up and down the country waiting in fear and trepidation for the start of the new tax year, buckling under the highest tax burden – on her watch – in the history of our country.”
Stride called for “much-needed reassurance” for businesses that she would not raise taxes further in the autumn Budget.
