The Labour Party is stepping up pressure on the Conservatives urging Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to come before the House of Commons, today, Tuesday 11th October and answer questions on what they are calling a “disastrous mini-Budget”.
Labour plan to use a series of Parliamentary devices to pressure the Chancellor into performing further U-turns on the mini-Budget, after proposals to scrap the top rate of income tax were ditched just days after they were announced and then the decision to bring forward the OBR forecast.
In a move designed to heap further pressure on the Prime Minister and Chancellor the Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves will issue a call to Tory MPs to say that it’s vital they speak up for constituents, make their views about the mini-Budget public and to work with Labour in putting pressure on the government over areas of consensus.
It expected that a key target of Labour and Tory rebels will be the suggestion that benefits will rise in line with average earnings (five per cent) instead of inflation, (predicted to be around 10 per cent).
A number of leading Conservative figures have already spoken out against this suggested change during the cost of living, including David Davis, Penny Mordaunt, Sajid Javid and Sir Robert Buckland.
One Conservative backbencher, told parliamentnews.co.uk that the Chancellor was in real trouble over the handling of the mini-budget and its presentation to the Party and the public, “The scrapping of the top rate income tax would have been fine when the economy was growing, but proposing it now was insanity squared.”
The Prime Minister and Chancellor also came under pressure during last week’s Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, when the mini-budget was criticised in several fringe meetings covering a wide spectrum of the Party.
In one meeting, Thatcherite think-tank – the Bruges Group – savaged the proposals to borrow huge sums of money to fund tax cuts. Professor Tim Congdon CBE, the leading economic commentator denounced the plans as unthatcherite and warned that the policy would lead to higher borrowing costs and us all being poorer.
Speaking about Labour’s plans the Shadow Chancellor commented: “This is a Tory crisis that has been made in Downing Street, and that is being paid for by working people.
“Families worried sick about bills haven’t even had so much as an apology from the Prime Minister or Chancellor, the architects of chaos unleashed on the British economy and family finances.
“Labour have forced this Tory government to U-turnthroughout the cost of living crisis and we will do all we can in our power to do so again to get them to reverse this disastrous, kamikaze budget.
“We need stability for our economy now and a real plan for growth that only a Labour government will bring. It will be up to Labour to clean up the mess of the Conservatives once again.”
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