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Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride has warned that Labour’s approach to welfare, taxation, and economic policy is harming both businesses and hard-working taxpayers. Speaking after the Budget, Mr Stride highlighted the impact of leaked financial documents, saying uncertainty has “destabilised markets” and made it harder for companies to plan for the future.Mr Stride criticised the Government’s spending plans, arguing that rising welfare costs and tax hikes are putting additional pressure on households while doing little to promote economic growth.WATCH THE CLIP ABOVE FOR MORE
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0:00
This budget has been a complete disaster
0:02
When we, I mean, talking to an economics expert earlier on, I mean, the bond markets seem pretty happy
0:06
Gilt yields are looking pretty good. They've gone down, so our borrowing is costing less
0:12
So there is certainly an element of the markets who think, well, it may not be great, but at least there's a bit of stability there
0:21
Well, good morning, Stephen. I think part of the story of the bond markets
0:24
is that we've just come off the back, of course, for many weeks of utter chaos with the Treasury leaking and U-turning
0:33
on what may or may not be in the budget and a very unsettling time for markets
0:38
And I think the fact that we've finally actually had the event and we know where we stand has probably been something that's contributed to markets
0:46
at least knowing where they stand on those kind of things. But look, what has happened in this budget is just a second instalment
0:53
of the disaster that we had in the first budget in the autumn of last year
0:56
huge tax increases on hard-working people, whilst at the same time giving in to the pressures from their own backbenchers
1:04
and the Labour Party and putting up benefits. That is not the way to get growth going
1:11
In fact, in the OBR's numbers, you can see growth being damaged throughout the period compared to the forecast in the spring
1:17
Unemployment going up every single year compared to the last forecast. and real living standards actually declining compared to last spring
1:25
as a consequence of the choices that the government's taken. Can we touch on the OBR You just alluded there to the chaos yesterday and there was drama before Rachel Rees even got to the dispatch box with the OBR essentially publishing their response to the budget in full
1:40
Richard Hughes, who is the head of the OBR, has apologised. Does an apology go far enough, and do you have full confidence in the OBR
1:50
Well, I've known Richard Hughes for some time. he is an honourable and decent man and I have always found him to be
1:57
thoroughly professional and very aware of the responsibilities of the position that he holds. In answer to the question as to where this should
2:06
all lead I think it does depend on getting to grips with exactly what the
2:10
facts were and the OBR as I understand it are conducting an internal
2:14
investigation at the moment and we really need to see the results of that before coming to any further conclusions. Does there potentially need
2:20
to be a criminal investigation into all of this? Well, in the event that a market sensitive
2:28
document was leaked for reasons other than a genuine error, a simple innocent error
2:35
then I think we do get into that kind of territory. But as I say, we don't know exactly
2:41
what has happened at the moment. I think the OBR has initially said this was just a genuine
2:45
mistake. It was released earlier than it should have been. But clearly this is
2:49
Ellie, a completely unprecedented situation, not helped by the fact that, of course, it's come on
2:55
the back of weeks and weeks of the Treasury going out there, floating
2:59
different ideas as to what may be in the budget saying one minute they be putting up income tax rates and then saying oh no they wouldn and so on which has been very destabilising both for the businesses sorry for the markets but also for businesses when it come to employing people or investing
3:16
and of course for consumer sentiment, because that has been damaged by all this uncertainty as to where all this was going to lead
3:23
I'm just wondering, and I'm aware it's a bit of an open goal for you, which is why I'm slightly hesitant
3:28
but nevertheless, this does seem to be... I mean, Nigel Farage called it an assault on aspiration
3:35
And to give him his due, that does seem to be a fair point, doesn't it
3:39
I mean, we've got welfare spending going up. We've got the benefits of saving for a rainy day or our old age
3:49
and putting in pensions certainly becomes more questionable. ball. Are we changing as a country where aspiration is being seen as a bad thing
4:01
I think we are in a bad place on aspiration and opportunity and celebrating achievement
4:05
and business success. Absolutely. And we have to get back actually to when I set up
4:11
my first business. I grew businesses here and in the United States from scratch. And
4:15
I did that from the 1980s onwards when there was a very different spirit in the country
4:20
and that was driven by a Conservative government at that time. We were getting taxes down, regulation out of the way of business and we have to
4:26
get back to that. But look, in order to do all that you need a very clear
4:30
plan. Reform have no plan. They had a manifesto with what Nigel Farage
4:34
seems to now accept at least Had a load of fantasy economics in it It was totally undeliverable and if reform had won the last election the first thing they have done would have been to have reneged on all their manifesto promises We set out
4:47
at our conference a clear plan for saving £47 billion across government spending, £23 billion
4:53
of that on the welfare bill, getting that down and being able to then
4:57
both bear down on the deficit and the debt, which is a fiscal
5:01
responsibility point and that is at the heart of our policy, whilst getting
5:05
taxes down on people so that hard working people can get rewarded, we can get the incentives
5:10
right and we can go out and really grow our economy. What is your response to the lifting
5:14
of the two child benefit camp? Because we were speaking to the Chancellor earlier on
5:18
in the programme and she was very proudly speaking about lifting 450,000 children out
5:22
of poverty. The best way to get people out of poverty, Ellie, is through work and we
5:29
showed that when we were in government. You need to get people back into work, into well
5:33
paid jobs. You also need to get inflation down, those cost of living pressures. And this
5:37
government's record on inflation has been utterly abysmal. We're going to have the highest
5:41
inflation this year, according to the IMF, and next year. Food inflation in particular
5:46
has been rocketing away. So you need to get on top of those kind of things. And that is
5:51
what our plan of getting on top of government spending and getting taxes down, easing those
5:57
pressures on people is all about. On the two-child benefit cap, it is not right that
6:03
Hard-working taxpayers should have to make tough decisions around larger families, but those on benefits are not subject to having to take the same kind of difficult decisions as well
6:11
And I don't think most people think that that is fair. We are out of time, but really good to talk
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