Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are two “desperate gamblers chasing a losing run” with an economic plan rewarding the “already wealthy”, according to shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.
The Labour frontbencher took aim at the Prime Minister and Chancellor as she warned the Government has served up a “menu without prices”, and questioned what Mr Kwarteng has “got to hide” by not allowing immediate independent forecasts of his plans.
She said Mr Kwarteng’s statement to the Commons had acted as a “comprehensive demolition” of the Conservatives’ record in power over the last 12 years.
Ms Reeves told MPs: “We have had six so-called plans for growth from the Conservatives since 2010 – here they are, a litany of failure every single one of them.”
She said the Government lacked a credible plan to deliver growth, adding: “The Prime Minister and Chancellor are like two desperate gamblers in a casino chasing a losing run.
“The argument peddled by the Chancellor isn’t a great new idea or a gamechanger, as the minister said, as much as they’d like us to think so.
“What this plan adds up to is to keep corporation tax where it is today, and take national insurance contributions back to where they were in March. Some new plan.”
She added: “It is all based on an outdated ideology that says if we simply reward those who are already wealthy, the whole of society will benefit.
“They have decided to replace levelling up with trickle down.
“As (US) president Biden said this week, he is sick and tired of trickle-down economics. And he is right to be. It is discredited, it is inadequate and it will not unleash the wave of investment that we need.”
Ms Reeves said the evidence shows low rates of corporation tax are “not the best way to boost investment and productivity”, adding that Labour would use targeted investment allowances and scrap “outdated and unfair business rates that harm our high streets and small businesses”.
Ms Reeves said it would be replaced with a “system fit for the 21st century”.
On home ownership, Ms Reeves said: “These stamp duty changes have been tried before.
“Last time the Government did it, a third of the people who benefited were buying a second home, a third home or a buy-to-let property.
“Is that really the best use of taxpayers’ money when borrowing and debt are already so high?”
She also said: “The Chancellor has made clear who his priorities are today – not a plan for growth, a plan to reward the already wealthy.
“A return to the trickle-down of the past, back to the future, not a brave new era.”
Speaking in the Commons shortly after the chancellor’s statement, Reeves thanked Kwarteng for his “comprehensive demolition of the record of the last 12 years.
“This statement is an admission of 12 years of economic failure.”
Watch the clip in full below:
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