Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride has accused Rachel Reeves of going into hiding as sterling sinks and UK borrowing costs surge.
Speaking in the House of Commons after being granted an urgent question, Stride asked: “Where is the Chancellor?”
Stride added that it was a “bitter regret” that the Chancellor was “nowhere to be seen” as the premium on UK borrowing costs compared to German bonds reached its highest level since 1990.
The surge in borrowing costs resulted in 30-year gilt yields hitting levels not seen since 1998 and 10-year gilt yields spiking to a post-2008 peak.
Darren Jones (left) and Mel Stride (right)
PARLIAMENT
Rachel Reeves
PA
The pound has also tumbled against the dollar as a result of the market turmoil, falling from a summer high of $1.34 to a 15-month low of $1.23.
Reeves did not appear in the House of Commons to address the Shadow Chancellor’s urgent question herself, instead putting up Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones.
During the exchange, Stride told MPs: “Every pound we spend on debt interest is money we cannot spend on the public’s priorities.
“The Government’s decision to let rip on borrowing means that their own tax rises will end up being swallowed up by the higher borrowing costs at no benefit to the British people.
“Far from this Government laying the foundations for a stronger economy, the Chancellor is squandering the endeavours of millions of hardworking people up and down our country who are now having to pay the price for yet another socialist Government taxing and spending their way into trouble. Does (Jones) not now accept that it is time to change course?”
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Sterling has dropped drastically against the dollar
FOREX
Borrowing costs have surged
GB NEWS
Jones insisted that the markets continue to “function in an orderly way”, claiming: “He asks me about the fiscal rules – as I said in my statement just now, they are non-negotiable.”
He added: “As the Chancellor set out at the budget we have two fiscal rules – one that day-to-day spending should be met by tax receipts and the second that debt should be falling as a size of the economy.”
Jones later took aim at the Tories over the economic legacy of recent Governments, adding: “They could not make the numbers add up. They’ve stacked up the country’s credit card. They’ve left it to this party to deal with, and we are going to deal with it.”
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury confirmed that Reeves will address the Commons when the OBR delivers its updated economic and fiscal forecast on March 26.
Starmer and ReevesPA
Liz Truss resigned after 44 days as PMGETTYLabour continues to highlight Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget as it looks to plug a £22billion black hole.
The markets were thrown into turmoil by Truss’s measures which looked to introduce a £45billion package of unfunded tax cuts.
However, the former Prime Minister this morning sent a cease and desist letter to Sir Keir Starmer demanding that he stops claiming she crashed the economy.
Truss’s lawyers warned the claim is “false and defamatory” and is causing “continuing damage to our client’s reputation”, suggesting it even led to her defeat in South West Norfolk.
+ There are no comments
Add yours