‘THEY’VE lost credibility, they’re losing confidence, they’re out of control,’ Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool as the pound crashed to parity with the US dollar yesterday.
In her speech, she accused the Tory PM Liz Truss and Chancellor Kwarsi Kwarteng of behaving like ‘desperate gamblers in a casino’.
Reeves accused the Chancellor of ‘fanning the flames’ of the falling pound by hinting at further ‘unfunded tax cuts’ in a BBC interview on Sunday.
Overnight, the pound fell by more than 4% to $1.03 – its lowest level against the US dollar.
Reeves warned the Tory government is ‘putting our economy in danger’.
She started her speech by attacking Kwarteng’s ‘mini-Budget’, saying that the government’s tax plans simply amount to ‘tax cuts for the wealthiest’.
And she criticised Truss’s approach to dealing with the energy bills crisis, saying the government should have adopted Labour’s plan to extend the windfall tax on oil and gas giants to pay for extra support to families.
Reeves said the Tory plan of more borrowing would leave people’s children and grandchildren to ‘pick up the tab’.
She added that the Tories have unveiled six different economic growth plans in the last 12 years, which amounts to a ‘library of failure’.
A Labour government would significantly increase the level of the national living wage, Reeves announced.
‘On day one as Chancellor I will write to the Low Pay Commission with a simple instruction, that the minimum wage will be set at a level that reflects the real cost of living.
‘The last Labour government delivered Britain’s first ever national minimum wage. The next Labour government will introduce a genuine living wage,’ she said.
Reeves went on: ‘Last year I told this conference I was more than happy to take on the Tories when it came to economic competence because I know that we can win.
‘I am now wondering whether they even plan to show up for the fight.’
She added: ‘I can tell you, with a Labour government, those at the top will pay their fair share. The 45p top rate of income tax is coming back.’
She said the money generated would be used to pay for the ‘biggest expansion of medical school places’ in British history, adding: ‘We will train an extra 10,000 nurses every year.’
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