Labour will fight next election on the economy, says Reeves
Shadow Chancellor accuses Tories of ‘gaslighting’ public over ‘turning corner’ claims
LABOUR will fight the next election on the economy, the Shadow Chancellor has said as she dismissed suggestions the UK was heading for a hung parliament.
In a speech in the City of London yesterday, Rachel Reeves said her party would use every day to “expose what the Conservatives have done to our country” and accused the Government of “gaslighting” the public by claiming Britain had “turned a corner”.
She said: “Instead of believing the Prime Minister’s claims that we’ve turned a corner, the questions people will ask ahead of the next election are simple.
“Do you and your family feel betteroffthanyoudidafter14yearsof Conservative government? Do our schools, our hospitals, our police, our transport work better than they did 14 years ago? Frankly, does anything in our country work better than it did when the Conservatives came into office 14 years ago?”
Asked about claims the local election results pointed to a hung parliament, Ms Reeves said Labour was “fighting for every single vote”, but had won in places it needed to if it is to form the next government.
She said: “I don’t think the results last week point to a hung parliament.”
The local elections brought a string of victories for Labour, including in Rishi Sunak’s own region of York and North Yorkshire and the key mayoral contest in the West Midlands.
Her intervention came days ahead of the Bank of England’s next interest rates decision tomorrow and the release of figures covering the economy’s performance over the first three months of this year on Friday.
Economists are widely expecting the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to keep rates at the current level of 5.25 per cent, despite political pressure from the Government to start lowering rates before the election.
Ministers may be more cheered by the Office for National Statistics’ quarterly GDP data, which is expected to show the UK has exited its recession.
But Ms Reeves said that, having described the downturn as a “technical recession”, the Chancellor would be “comfortable calling it a ‘technical’ recovery”.
Acknowledging that inflation could return to its two per cent target, interest rates could be cut and Britain could be out of recession as early as this month, Ms Reeves said: “I already know what the Chancellor will say in response to one or all of these events happening. He has been saying it for months now: ‘The economy is turning a corner’, ‘our plan is working’, ‘stick with us’.
“I want to take those arguments head on because they do not speak to the economic reality.”
She added: “During the local elections I travelled across the country. I spoke to hundreds of people. I listened to their stories.
“And when they hear Government ministers telling them that they have never had it so good, that they should look out for the ‘feelgood factor’, all they hear is a Government that is deluded and completely out of touch with the realities on the ground.
“The Conservatives are gaslighting the British public.”
While the Conservative Party is historically more trusted on the economy and stewardship of public finances, polls suggest Labour’s approach of stressing the need for stability and sticking rigidly within balanced tax and spending rules is working.