Rachel Reeves Launches Her Strongest Attack On Brexit Amid Gloomy Economic Numbers
Rachel Reeves has launched her strongest attack yet on Brexit as she vowed to “break down trade barriers” with the European Union that are holding back the UK economy.
The chancellor hit out as she revealed the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) now believed the economic will grow more slowly this year than they previously thought.
At the time of the Budget last November, the OBR said the economy would grow by 1.4% in 2026.
But delivering the Spring Statement this afternoon, she said that had now been reduced to 1.1% in a major blow for the government.
The rate of unemployment is also expected to be higher than previously forecast this year, although inflation, borrowing and government debt will also be lower than the OBR previously thought.
Reeves said she will deliver a major speech later this month setting out how the government plans to boost economic growth.
She said: “I will set out three major choices that will determine the course of our economy into the future.
“To go further in strengthening our global relationships, breaking down trade barriers and deepening alliances with our European partners for a more secure and connected economy.”
Attacking the Tories, Reeves also pointed out that they had supported leaving the European Union.
She said: “They opposed economic responsibility and backed Liz Truss. Wrong. They opposed closer ties to Europe and backed Brexit. Wrong.
“They opposed cuts in child poverty and want to repeat austerity. Wrong values, wrong economics, they are just plain wrong.”
Her comments are significant as further evidence of Labour’s willingness to criticise Brexit, despite millions of the party’s traditional voters backing it in the 2016 referendum.
Dr Mike Galsworthy, chair of the pro-EU think-tank the European Movement UK, said: “This decade has seen the UK economy on life-support, with some of the worst growth in a century.
“There is an obvious treatment right on our doorstep, but the government has so far ignored it.
“Rachel Reeves’s comments today in her Spring Statement perhaps signal that they are finally ready to break down the barriers that Brexit imposed on UK businesses, and take real steps to align with our closest trading partner.”
He added: “The UK-EU reset cannot just be a summit photo, it must mean market access. The UK’s economic woes are the true cost of a bad deal. It is time to stop managing decline and start rebuilding a trading relationship that actually works for British industry.”