Sir Mel Stride has launched a blistering attack on Chancellor Rachel Reeves, declaring her Spring Statement a “surrender statement”.
Taking to the dispatch box following the Chancellor’s address, the Shadow Chancellor hit out at Ms Reeves, branding her a “Chancellor in denial”.
Sir Mel said of the statement: “Is that it? What utter complacency. A Chancellor in denial. She speaks of stability, what planet is the Right Honourable lady on?
“She has lurched from putting up taxes to destroying growth, to destroying headroom, to coming back to putting up more taxes, more growth destroyed. Round and round we go, like a fiscal twister ripping up everything in its path.”
As the Commons erupted in response to Sir Mel’s opening remarks, Speaker Lindsay Hoyle was forced to intervene, telling the Labour benches: “I will hear the Shadow Chancellor, because people need to recognise there’s two sides.”
The Tory frontbencher then hit back at the Labour MPs, declaring they “just don’t like the truth”.
He stated: “As our economy bleeds out, what does the Right Honourable lady do? She comes to this house with nothing to say and with no plan. Unless, of course, doing nothing is a cunning plan to avoid those U-turns further down the line.
“She is weak, Mr Speaker. She has even stripped the OBR of its ability to assess whether she is meeting her fiscal targets. So, Mr Speaker, let it be remembered that at this time in this Chamber, this weak and chaotic Government gave up on the British people.”
Mel Stride has declared Rachel Reeves’s Spring Statement is a ‘surrender statement’
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Criticising Ms Reeves’s statement further, Sir Mel declared that the Chancellor had “nothing to say” to the nation today, despite her lengthy address.
He stated: “She has nothing to say to us today. This is not a Spring Statement.”
Interjecting Sir Mel’s response a second time, the Speaker was forced to reprimand Labour MP Barry Gardiner, telling him: “Mr Gardiner, I expect better. We have to listen to you on Thursday night, I don’t need to hear you now!”
The Shadow Chancellor continued his attack on Ms Reeves, declaring her address was nothing more than a “surrender statement”.
Rachel Reeves was astounded by Mel Stride’s attack
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He declared: “They don’t like it, Mr Speaker, they don’t like the truth. This is not a Spring Statement, Mr. Speaker, it is a surrender statement.
“The Chancellor has the temerity to suggest that she is creating the conditions for renewed growth.
“She is rather like the dodgy estate agent standing in the crumbling building with a roof gone, the windows gone, with the floor gone and saying, ‘just think of the potential’.
“But that potential, Mr Speaker, has been undermined by the terrible state of our public finances.”
Responding to Sir Mel Stride’s criticism of the Spring Statement, Rachel Reeves said the Conservatives will bring back austerity, arguing that the Tories have the “wrong plan”.
The Chancellor said: “Today’s performance is yet another reminder of how irrelevant the Conservative Party now is…[They] have been wrong about the economy time and time again.
“The choice is clear. Investment with Labour or austerity with the Conservatives. Stability with Labour or more chaos with the Conservatives.
“Wrong leader, wrong choices, wrong plan, only Labour has the right plan with for the economy.”