‘Budget hasn’t worked’: Reeves defends China trip as Stride says Brits ‘deserve better’
Rachel Reeves has defended her trip to China amid economic turmoil in the UK as MPs argued her Budget “hasn’t worked” and insisted: “The British people deserve better.”
The Chancellor appeared in the House of Commons for the first time since last week’s bond market shock threw her public spending plans and fiscal rules into jeopardy.
She insisted her visit to Beijing and Shanghai was vital for the government’s “number one mission” to achieve economic growth, and stressed: “As the second biggest economy in the world and our fourth largest trading partner, not engaging is simply not an option.”
Reeves argued the UK “must go further and faster in our plan to kickstart economic growth” and said she and the Treasury “remain committed to those fiscal rules”, including to pay for day-to-day spending through tax receipts and to get debt down as a share of the economy.
But she faced robust criticism from her Conservative opponent, shadow Chancellor Mel Stride who accused her of what he claimed “Labour circles” were calling “the Peking duck” by flying to China rather than speaking to MPs last week.
Stride compared Reeves’ position to a Shakespearean tragedy, suggesting the Prime Minister should remove her, adding: “To go or not to go? That is now a question.
“The Prime Minister will be damned if he does, but he will surely be damned if he does not.
“The British people deserve better.”
While Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper also attacked Reeves’ first fiscal event, telling the House: “Let’s be blunt, the budget hasn’t worked.
“The Chancellor says that the government’s number-one mission is growth, but to date, there are no signs that the government is going to deliver it.”
She called the rise in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) “self-defeating” and warned “it undermines growth, it does not unleash it”.
Cooper also branded Reeves’ China visit, which the Treasury said resulted in agreements worth £600m to the UK economy over the next five years, “much-lauded [but] small beer”.
However, Reeves said the £600m represented “tangible benefit for British businesses trading overseas” and “enhanced trade and investment”, adding: “[She] seems to want the additional money for public services, but without finding a way to pay for them.”
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith, who has been sanctioned by the Asian state, quizzed Reeves on whether goods “that contain any slave labour” would be imported from China, in the wake of clothing firm Shein failing to answer questions at a select committee.
Reeves said the government was “committed to working with international partners and businesses to ensure global supply chains are free from human and labour rights abuses”.