By Jason Groves, political editor of the Daily Mail
23:49 24 November 2023, updated 00:27 25 November 2023
- Conservative Party leader considers her allegations ‘scaremongering’
- Labour’s shadow minister’s claim had a $55 billion gap between the figures
Rachel Reeves was under pressure to apologize for “scaremongering” last night after wrongly claiming the economy was on course to contract.
Tory leader Richard Holden has called on Labour’s shadow chancellor to “correct the record” after she claimed the economy is expected to be £40bn smaller in 2027 than forecast in March.
Holden said figures released by the Office for Budget Responsibility this week showed the economy was expected to be 0.6 per cent larger in 2027 than forecast earlier this year – equivalent to an improvement of around £15 billion.
In a letter to the shadow chancellor last night, Mr Holden said there appeared to be a “£55 billion gap between what you say and reality”.
He said Ms Reeves appeared to have failed “either intentionally or negligently” to take into account a major upward revision of the UK’s previous growth rates by the Office for National Statistics, which showed the UK had recovered from the pandemic faster than France or Germany. .
“At every opportunity Labor resorts to panic-mongering and defeatism – rather than celebrating the resilience of our economy and the strength of British businesses across the country,” Holden wrote.
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