Former prime minister Liz Truss was right to be radical, but the numbers need to “add up”, the Conservative shadow chancellor has told Sky News.
Sir Mel Stride said the 49-day prime minister was “absolutely right” to recognise that “radicalism” is needed to grow the UK economy, “particularly in a more dangerous world”, but that it needed to be “delivered in the right way”.
He was speaking after delivering a major speech in which he sought to put vast distance between the Conservative Party of today, and the consequences of the mini-budget in September 2022 that sent inflation and interest rates soaring.
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In blunt criticism of his party’s former leader, Sir Mel vowed they would “never again” repeat the “mistakes” that she made, saying she “put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected”.
“The credibility of the UK’s economic framework was undermined by spending billions on subsidising energy bills, and tax cuts, with no proper plan for how this would be paid for,” he said.
“As a Conservative, of course I want taxes to be as low as possible. But that must be achieved responsibly through fiscal discipline.”
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He said the mistakes in the mini-budget were rapidly “recognised” by the party’s MPs, and stability was restored “within weeks” – but he acknowledged the lasting “damage” to their credibility.
Sir Mel said: “Let me be clear: never again will the Conservative Party undermine fiscal credibility by making promises we cannot afford.”
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We need ‘responsible radicalism’
Asked by Sky News after her speech what Ms Truss – who was elected by his party’s members as leader, and therefore, prime minister – if he thinks she did anything right during her historically short tenure, the shadow chancellor argued that the “radicalism” she displayed is what is needed.
He said: “What is absolutely right is to recognise that the status quo, for the reasons I’ve given, is no longer tenable, particularly in a more dangerous world.”
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He pointed to Russia, China, and the Korean peninsula as areas where the world is less stable, as well as the “disengagement of America from European security to at least some degree” – all of which will require more spending on defence.
“That needs a much more strongly growing economy, or we are going to start slipping further and further behind, and we are going to become more fragile and more vulnerable. And I think a recognition of that is absolutely right.”
But he continued: “There is a way about doing it, and it has to have, at its heart, fiscal responsibility. It has to have an offer, it has to have something that the markets look at where the numbers add up.
“So we need to have responsible radicalism. We certainly need the radicalism, but it’s got to be delivered in the right way,” he added.
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Truss and Stride trade barbs
Ahead of the speech, Ms Truss attacked Sir Mel, labelling him a “creature of the system” who “sides with the failed treasury orthodoxy”.
Asked for his response by the Bank of England’s former chief economist Andy Haldane, who was moderating the session, Sir Mel quipped: “Whatever happened to her?”
He went to suggest she did not have a “credible fiscal policy” which saw her “los[ing] control of the economy”.
He added: “The overriding message I bring to you today is: yes, we have made mistakes in the past, but we won’t ever, ever repeat them.”
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Labour and Reform a ‘threat to our economy’
Sir Mel was also intensely critical of Labour and Reform, labelling them a “clear and present threat to our economy”.
“Only Kemi Badenoch, and the Conservatives, have spoken up for taxpayers and the public finances.,” he argued.
“Defending the two-child cap, pushing Labour to be bolder on welfare reform. And we must demonstrate that we will be responsible.”
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In response to the speech, a Labour Party spokesperson said the Tories have “spent the last six months making billions of pounds of unfunded spending commitments and promoting Liz Truss’s disastrous top team”.
“The Tories inflicted mortgage misery and sky-high bills on working people. Their weasel words can’t change that fact, and their unfunded plans show they will do it all over again. They haven’t changed.”
