Tories gambling with the finances of British people, says Starmer
Sir Keir Starmer has accused the government of “gambling the mortgages and finances” of the British people with its “casino economics”.
Speaking before his party’s conference in Liverpool, the Labour leader tweeted: “Tory casino economics is gambling the mortgages and finances of every family in the country. Labour will secure growth for working people, that benefits all communities. My government will deliver a fairer, greener future.”
The chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced his fiscal aspirations in a £45bn tax-cutting package that will benefit the richest 1% at the expense of struggling households.
Kwarteng also slashed stamp duty for homebuyers and brought forward a cut to the basic rate of income tax, to 19p in the pound, a year early, to April.
The announcement sent the pound crashing to its lowest level against the dollar in 37 years.
Announcing his mini-budget on Friday, Kwarteng said economic policy should focus entirely on growth.
But Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said the next generation would be left worse off after the government’s “trickle-down” approach to economics.
“We’ve had 12 years of the Conservatives and growth hasn’t expanded, and people haven’t seen that economy growing in a way we need it to,” she told BBC Breakfast.
“We’ve seen trickle-down economics before. It doesn’t work. We don’t believe it’ll stimulate the economy, and I think it will make the next generation worse off.”
Labour’s deputy leader said her party’s plan for growth would be different, adding: “We wouldn’t be making choices around the tax cuts at the moment, we don’t think that’s the way forward.”
“We would be asking the oil and gas companies to pay a little bit more when they’ve made billions of pounds of profits, instead of
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