Political opinion with Cllr Duncan Crow: Government policies creating a worsening economy

Inflation almost doubling, going up from 2.0% to 3.5% is bad new for us all. After global economic shocks, the previous Conservative Government had brought down inflation to it’s 2% Bank of England target, but this is now badly unravelling under Labour, and that is before current global events that could see an oil price spike that will stoke inflation still further.

The number of unemployment people has increased by 10% since Labour took office, rising from 4.1% to 4.6% with concerns of more rises to come.

Economic growth is going into reverse. It was running at 1.4% when the Conservatives left office but has now fallen to 0.8% over the quarter, with the latest figures for April showing an economic contraction of -0.3%.

Government debt has risen from 94.8% of GDP to 95.5% and not only has the debt grown, government borrowing costs have also risen from 4.69% to 5.35%. This really matters as it means there is less money for public services. Note these current government borrowing costs are exceeding the maximum 5.17% that was the maximum after the disastrous mini-budget under the worst ever Conservative PM, Liz Truss.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have spent almost three years misleading everyone, saying the Conservatives crashed the economy, and then cynically using this as an excuse for their own poorly judged decisions, such as the removal of the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and the increase in National Insurance.

The reality is it’s Labour who are crashing the economy right now and who have rewritten history to try to get themselves off the hook. The economy wasn’t crashed under the Conservatives. What happened was the bond markets were temporarily spooked by the Liz Truss mini budget. Yes, she was unsuitable to be PM and promptly resigned, but now under Starmer the government borrowing costs are higher than the maximum under Truss.