Rachel Reeves just showed she’s lost the plot – make your blood boil | Personal Finance | Finance
She continues to treat us as if we’re absolute idiots who’ll believe any old nonsense if she repeats it often enough. And now, with her job on the line, she’s gone into overdrive. Reeves is desperate to remain chancellor. Thankfully, PM-designate Andy Burnham seems unlikely to grant her wish, although we don’t know for sure. She’s clinging on, but in trying so hard to ingratiate herself with the new leadership, she’s only reminding us how messed up her career so badly in the first place.
During the election, Reeves repeatedly stated that “Labour will not increase taxes on working people”. So far, she’s hit us for £70billion. That’s an outrageous whopper, but only for starters. She’s constantly claimed that she’s “fixed the foundations” of the economy, despite taking a wrecking ball to them. Then banged on about how she’s “restored economic stability”. All thanks to the “tough choices” she’s made. She rolls out those lines in a zombie-like tone, as if they were drilled into her during a Labour Party media training session. Which they obviously were.
Reeves is a serial peddler of delusions. She was at it again yesterday, as she swung her support belatedly and pathetically behind Andy Burnham for PM, talking about the “stability that I’ve returned to the economy.” My body temperature shot up several degrees when she said that. What stability?
Growth has flatlined while our borrowing continues to rocket. She’s already added £300billion to the national debt and added another £23.3billion in May alone. Britain now has the highest borrowing costs in the G7 because the bond market doesn’t trust Labour. Nor do workers or bosses. Unemployment is climbing as Reeves’s endless tax rises hit businesses, with another 200,000 jobs forecast to go this year, while companies continue to collapse and welfare spirals out of control. We’re heading towards fiscal ruin and she calls it “stability”.
Then came another classic Reeves line: “I’m really proud of my record.” The sweat pours out of me just hearing that. She backed this up by claiming inflation, interest rates and economic growth are all moving in the right direction, when they’re evidently not. Then she was back to banging on about “the stability that I’ve returned to the economy”. Talk about tone deaf, as the cost-of-living crisis rages and Britain feels more unstable than ever.
Keir Starmer and Reeves always came as a package. The PM said they were in “lock step”. The dismal duo rose together, and will almost certainly fall together. Neither has a natural facility with words. They spout drivel and expect us to accept it. They assume we’re as verbally hapless as they are.
Yesterday, Reeves surpassed herself. She came out with two words that should chill anyone who cares about the UK economy. Asked if she had “unfinished business” in the role, she confirmed she did. At that, I went into meltdown. What business can she got possibly have left to finish?
Are there still more taxes she wants to hike? Has she spotted a rare outbreak of economic growth that she needs to crush? More jobs to destroy? Farms to crush? Or perhaps our £3trillion national debt simply isn’t big enough yet. Or might Reeves have “unfinished business” with pensioners? She’s already attacked their pensions, savings, investments and winter fuel payment. What else might she have done, given time?
If Reeves has unfinished business, we can ony hope that she leaves it unfinished. Andy Burnham has some “tough choices” ahead too. Removing our failed, deluded chancellor should be one of the easiest.
