A member of the Labour Shadow cabinet has hit out at the Government’s mini-budget – and accused them of playing casino politics with the economy.
Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed slammed Kwasi Kwarteng’s moves yesterday as ‘a reckless gamble’.
He told GB News: “I’ve got to say it looks to me like a reckless gamble with the British economy that does very little for working people. The real winners in all of this are bankers. But you know, the government had 12 years to get the economy right. Liz Truss has been a member of the Cabinet for 10 of those years. They’ve had six different growth plans that have all failed. They’ve imposed 15 different tax hikes. Lizz voted for all of them – even in March this year.
“When they pushed through the National Insurance contributions rise, Labour was telling the Government this is the wrong tax rise at the wrong time. Kwasi Kwarteng and Liz truss didn’t just vote for it. They came on shows like yours and they defend it. They’ve had 12 years to get the economy right. And they failed abysmally. So now, with the next general election, no more than two years away at most, it looks to me like they’ve gone to the casino, and they’ve gambled the British economy on British people’s household finances. On a set of unposted tax cuts that benefit the super wealthy, but which do very different to help anybody else.”
Mr Reed’s comments come as the Chancellor defended his measures saying the massive tax cuts aimed to boost economic growth are fair for all despite the highest earners gaining the most.
The Chancellor scrapped the top rate of income tax as part of the biggest package of tax cuts in 50 years.Labour and some Tory MPs have said it was wrong to cut taxes for the wealthy during a cost-of-living crisis.
But Mr Kwarteng said he was “being fair” by reducing taxes right across the income bracket.
The package of measures, which has been dubbed a mini-budget, will be paid for by a sharp rise in government borrowing amounting to tens of billions of pounds.
Paul Johnson, director of the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies, said the plans were a “big gamble”, with money being pumped into the economy when inflation remains high.
There was an immediate reaction in financial markets, as the pound sunk and UK stocks fell.
