Rachel Reeves says Labor will fight the next general election on the economy

Labor will fight the next election on the economy, the shadow chancellor said, as he dismissed suggestions Britain was heading for a hung parliament.

In a speech in the City of London, Rachel Reeves said her party would use every day to “expose what the Tories have done to our country” and accused the government of “squeezing” the public, claiming Britain had “turned a corner “.

She said: “Rather than believing the Prime Minister’s claims that we have turned a corner, the questions people will be asking ahead of the next election are simple.”

“Are you and your family better off than after 14 years of Tory government? Are our schools, our hospitals, our police, our transport working better than 14 years ago? Honestly, is anything in our country working better than it did when the Tories came into office 14 years ago?”

Asked about claims the local election results pointed to a hung parliament, Ms Reeves said Labor was “fighting for every vote” but won in the seats it needed to form the next government.

She said: “I don’t think last week’s results indicate a hung parliament.”

The local elections saw a string of wins for Labour, including Rishi Sunak’s York and North Yorkshire region and the key mayoral contest in the West Midlands.

Her intervention came days before the Bank of England’s next interest rate decision on Thursday and the release of figures covering the economy’s performance in the first three months of this year on Friday.

Economists widely expect the Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee to keep rates at their current level of 5.25%, despite political pressure from the Government to start cutting rates ahead of the election.

Ministers may be more encouraged by quarterly GDP data from the Office for National Statistics, which should show the UK is out of recession.

But Ms Reeves said that after describing the recession as a “technical recession”, the chancellor would be “comfortable calling it a ‘technical’ recovery”.

Admitting that inflation could return to the 2% target, interest rates could be cut and Britain could exit recession as early as this month, Ms Reeves said: “I already know what the chancellor will say in response to one or all these. events that happen. He’s been saying for months, “The economy is turning around,” “our plan is working,” “stay with us.”

“I want to take these arguments forward because they don’t speak to economic reality.”

She added: “During the local elections I traveled around the country. I talked to hundreds of people. I listened to their stories.”

“And when I hear Government ministers saying they’ve never had it so good, that they should look after the ‘feel good factor’, all I hear is a Government that is screwed and completely broke of the realities on the ground. .”

“Conservatives enlighten British public”.

While the Conservative Party has historically had more confidence in the economy and the management of public finances, polls suggest Labour’s approach of stressing the need for stability and sticking rigidly to balanced rules on tax and spending is working.

The party has stepped up its attacks on what it calls “chaos and decline” under the Tories, releasing a series of videos on a website called “Conflix”.

The party has also secured the assistance of former Tory minister Nick Boles, who quit the Tories over Brexit in 2019 and informally advised the shadow cabinet on preparing for power.

Mr Boles introduced Ms Reeves’ speech on Thursday, saying he understood the importance of demonstrating fiscal discipline to earn the right to produce “transformative change”.

Ms Reeves promised Labor would boost economic growth and “raise living standards, deliver public services and let Britain compete in the world again”.

She outlined plans to set up a national wealth fund to deliver private and public investment, reform planning laws to build 1.5 million homes and create 650,000 jobs in the UK’s industrial heartland .

Asked if Labour’s plans could still be achieved now that it has backtracked on plans to invest £28 billion a year in the green economy, Ms Reeves said she did not believe her party’s goals required the amount it set out earlier first and the planning reform will be. the key to securing private investment.

She said: “We can do that through other means, including the creation of GB Energy, the national wealth fund and, crucially, those planning reforms.”

Ms Reeves also reiterated her party’s commitment to bring forward “a new deal for workers” legislation within the first 100 days of a new administration, but said businesses had “nothing to fear”.

She said: “The truth is that many, many businesses are already going above and beyond what’s in the new deal for working people, they don’t have zero-hours contracts, they don’t use fire and re-employment practices, they do better. rights around sick pay”.

“So businesses have nothing to fear from the new deal for working people, but (for) businesses using these methods there will be a level playing field to ensure that businesses cannot undercut each other using zero hours contracts or by fire and re-engage”.

She said Labor would “consult on how to implement these things so there are no unintended adverse consequences”.

Conservative minister Laura Trott, the chief secretary to the Treasury, said Ms Reeves offered “just the same buzzwords and unfunded spending commitments” and could not say how Labor would grow the economy.

She said: “This is the same old Labor Party that always leads to higher taxes, higher unemployment, betraying pensioners and hammering businesses with 70 new Labor regulations that would cost jobs and hurt economic growth.”