Tories offering Britain ‘five more years of chaos’, warns Rachel Reeves in major economic speech – UK politics live | Politics

Reeves says the UK economy would be £140bn bigger if it had grown at the rate of other OECD economies over the past 14 years.

And she says the government should not take a “victory lap” over inflation finally hitting its target for the first time in three years or the economy moving from negative growth to no growth.

And if Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, said the economy was in a “technical recession” then it was implicitly a technical recovery, she says.

Rachel Reeves speak now For now, the speech follows the lines informed in advance quite close.

Nick Bowles, former Conservative minister, presents Rachel Reeves. Bowles was a minister in David Cameron’s government but left the party over Brexit and recently he has advised Labour.

Bowles says that he and Reeves were elected to the House of Commons at the same time and that it was clear that when Labor recovered, she will play a leading role. He continue:

The reason, I think, why Rachel has made such an impression on the British public is that she understands something that all successful chancellors, regardless of party, must understand.

And that’s what I call the fundamental paradox of economic governance, which is that by demonstrating discipline, responsibility, and a sense of the importance of restraint, you earn the right, you earn the trust, to be able to make transformative change.

Rachel understands this, many of the great chancellors in history have, but unfortunately some recent chancellors and prime ministers have not.

Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary said a “state actor” appeared to be responsible for hacking of Defense Department data.

In an interview with GB News, Stride suggested that a foreign government was responsible. But he didn’t blame China – there are even reports claiming Beijing was to blame considered responsible.

Stride said Grant Shapps, the defense secretary, would give more details in a statement to MPs this afternoon. He said:

It seems at this stage I think it’s some kind of state actor, but let’s wait and see what we hear.

On China, we made it very clear in our defense review, in the refresh of that review, that China remains, I think we identified them as an epochal challenge for the UK in terms of economic security.

That is why we have obviously taken action in the past in terms of removing Huawei hardware from parts of our infrastructure here in the UK, as well as energy security interventions.

So we take that very seriously, but at the end of the day they are also a very important economic partner and we have global challenges like climate change that we need to engage with China to address.

China has rejected claims that it is to blame. China’s foreign ministry said it opposes all forms of cyber-attacks and that this issue should not be used to vilify other countries.

Mel Stride, the Work and Pensions Secretary, was tasked with making the government’s case to the media this morning. He told Times Radio that many potential Conservative supporters did not vote in local elections because they were “disaffected”. He continued:

This is a volatile electorate, there are undoubtedly people we need to win back to the Conservative cause.

I suspect that many of these people were left out on election day last Thursday and it is now up to us to do absolutely everything we can in a unified way as a party to bring these people back into the Conservative fold.

Yesterday, in response to the Labor press release with preliminary extracts from the speech Rachel Reeves is giving today, CCHQ issued a statement from Richard Holden, the Conservative leader. CCHQ is putting out a lot of rebuttal comments at the moment and most of them contain an element of what do you think, but this is an extreme example. Holden says:

Personnel may change, but the Labor Party does not. Rachel Reeves still worships Gordon Brown, who sold off our gold reserves and whose hubris brought Britain to the brink of financial collapse.

Labor has no plan and would take us back to square one with higher taxes, higher unemployment, an illegal immigration amnesty and a conspiracy to betray pensioners, just like Gordon Brown did.

The Labor the press release made no mention of Gordon Brown or gold reserves. But the CCHQ release said Reeves praised Brown in an interview in July 2023.

Good morning. Whenever Rishi Sunak or any other minister speaks publicly and tries to explain why the Conservative government deserves to be re-elected, their main argument is to insist that “the plan is working”. In a speech this morning, Rachel Reevesthe shadow chancellor, will come face to face with this claim.

Like Pippa Crerar reports in her preview story, Reeves will say Tory claims that the economy is recovering are “deluded and completely out of touch”.

Reeves will say:

By the next election, we can and should expect interest rates to be cut, Britain to emerge from recession and inflation to return to the Bank of England’s target.

Indeed, these things can happen this month.

I already know what the Chancellor will say in response to any or all of these developments. He’s been saying it for months: “The economy is turning around”, “our plan is working”, “stick with us”.

I want to address these arguments because they do not correspond to economic reality.

Explaining the rationale behind the speech, Labor aide said Politico’s Sam Blewett, that it is designed to prevent the “strange victory lap” that Sunak and Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, are expected to embark on when the economy emerges from recession and interest rates fall. “We want to deny them that reset moment,” the aide said.

But according to early polls, Reeves will also take a swipe at another Tory talking point. After the local elections, Conservatives revived the argument that Britain should not vote Labor because it would lead to a “coalition of chaos”, with a minority Labor government dependent on the support of the SNP, the Lib Dems or the Greens. At the weekend, a No 10 source used this in a Telegraph briefing.

Sunak he did not use the phrase himself, but on Sunday night he said: “Keir Starmer, backed in Downing Street by the SNP, the Lib Dems and the Greens, would be a disaster for Britain.”

David Cameron used a version of this argument very successfully in the 2015 election campaign. However, given what has happened in the six years since Brexit, his phrase is now mostly remembered not as an example of brilliant political messaging, but mostly as a colossal joke and one of the worst predictions in history.

That’s why it was strange to see the number 10 revive the line nine years later.

And in his speech Reeves will hit back, saying at the next election voters will have a clear choice between “another five years of chaos with the Conservatives” or “stability with a changed Labor party”.

Here is the program for the day.

Morning: Rishi Sunak chair cabinet.

10 in the morning: Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, gives a speech in the City of London.

11.30 am: Downing Street is holding a lobby briefing.

Late morning: Sunak is visiting London. He has two visits scheduled today.

14.30: Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, answers the question in the House of Commons.

afternoon: MSPs are expected to vote to elect John Sweeney as the new First Minister.

After 3.30 p.m: Grant Shapps, the Defense Secretary, is due to make a statement to MPs on Ministry of Defense personal data hack.

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