The verdict is in. The Gilt market has found the Chancellor Rachel Reeves guilty of reckless endangerment of the country’s finances. A large electoral majority led her to think the world would happily finance what she described in her Mais Lecture as the “smart and strategic state”.
Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride believes the Conservatives have got every chance of succeeding in coming back after just one term
The Chancellor delivered the largest tax-raising Budget in history, clobbering businesses, motorists, farmers and pension savers with a £40 million raid.
The chancellor is caught in a credibility trap, where abiding by one promise made in the name of credibility undermines another. The government’s credibility relies on incredible promises that cannot be met.
UK chancellor Rachel Reeves has shrugged off calls for her resignation, insisting to MPs that her economic plans can deliver an “immense” prize and defending her visit to China last week.
The Chancellor is accused of pushing up borrowing costs by enough to fund more than one and a half million hip replacements
Reeves – and Keir Starmer – desperately need the economic clouds to disperse if they are to start changing the public’s perception of the government. Although Labour insiders insist there is “no chance” of the prime minister dumping his chancellor, it is clear that grumblings about her performance are growing louder.
Reeves’s worst week in office so far was marked by the UK struggling to keep the confidence of financial markets following a global bond sell-off. The investor revolt pushed up government borrowing costs amid concerns her current economic plan won’t deliver the growth to bring national debt under control, and will drive up already sticky inflation.
As ye sow, so shall ye reap. One reasonably reliable rule of economics is that markets will eventually always find you out. It’s taken just six short months for this to happen to Labour, with its fairytale promise to end austerity in public services without having to raise taxes on working people.
The majority of Labour figures rallied around Reeves on Tuesday as she defended her plans against a backdrop of economic turbulence
Rachel Reeves shrugged off Tory calls for her resignation as she faced MPs after a turbulent week, which saw volatility in the pound and the cost of Government borrowing soar
Kemi Badenoch attempted to put Labour on the back foot on the economy - only to have her party's dire 14-year record thrown back at her. Here The Mirror looks at some highlights