{"id":182494,"date":"2025-12-13T22:28:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T22:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/182494\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T22:28:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T22:28:07","slug":"rachel-reeves-blamed-for-pushing-uk-to-brink-of-recession-politics-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/182494\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Reeves blamed for pushing UK to brink of recession | Politics | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour has given up on its \u201cgrowth mission\u201d and it falls to Britain\u2019s private sector to rescue the country from recession<\/a>, it was claimed amid alarm at the UK\u2019s shrinking economy. Britain\u2019s economy contracted<\/a> by 0.1% in October when growth had been expected. This has fuelled expectations the Bank of England will cut interest rates on Thursday \u2013 but also intensified calls for a change in direction<\/a> from the Government.<\/p>\n

Callum Price of the Institute of Economic Affairs said: \u201cThe Government has entirely given up on its growth mission, but it shouldn’t have.\u201d<\/p>\n

He urged the Government to \u201cdouble down\u201d on planing reform<\/a> and not to press ahead with the turbo-charging of workers\u2019 rights spearheaded by Angela Rayner<\/a> before she was forced to resign.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe need the private sector to save us from recession”<\/p>\n

Daniel Herring of the Centre for Policy Studies also called on the Government not to hit businesses with more red tape, saying: \u201cWhen they came to power, Labour promised businesses certainty, predictability and sympathy. Instead they\u2019ve had tax rises, instability and months of damaging Budget speculation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most obvious way to help business right now would be to abandon the damaging Employment Rights Bill and send a clear signal that any future Budgets will curb spending \u2013 and in particular the swollen welfare bill \u2013 rather than putting more burdens on the private sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

And economist Ewen Stewart, a member of the Growth Commission, said: \u201cThis Government is the author of its own and our misery. This week\u2019s GDP growth numbers revealing that the economy contracted over the previous three months were predictably awful.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorse, manufacturing, services and construction all posted marked declines. Yet these lamentable numbers were from before the Budget which again taxed and regulated those who work to give to the increasingly failing public sector.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does not take a genius to work out that these measures will make matters worse going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Longworth, chairman of the Independent Business Network, warned: \u201cGiven that the economy, far from growing as promised by the Government, is in fact shrinking we now face the prospect of a possible recession.\u201dHe pressed for the Government to abandon \u201cnet zero madness\u201d, adding: \u201cA focus on the opportunities of Brexit<\/a> and our superior trade deals would help \u2013 only possible if we stay away from a customs union.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Treasury spokesperson defended the Government\u2019s record, saying: \u201cWe defied the forecasts this year with the OBR, Bank of England, IMF, OECD, and now the BCC and CBI, all upgrading their growth forecasts. The Chancellor\u2019s Budget will drive economic growth through billions of pounds protected for new investment, better conditions for start-ups to scale and grow, and lower inflation to support the Bank of England to cut interest rates<\/a> further and spur business confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride said: “Just as night follows day, Labour will raise your taxes\u2026 A responsible Chancellor would get a grip on spending \u2013 including the welfare bill \u2013 instead of reaching for another tax raid on working people.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd despite all this, she refuses to rule out coming back for more next year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour has given up on its \u201cgrowth mission\u201d and it falls to Britain\u2019s private sector to rescue the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,25833,219,111,139,69,2644,23323,2919,115777],"class_list":{"0":"post-182494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economic-growth","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-private-sector","15":"tag-rachel-reeves","16":"tag-recession","17":"tag-uk-recession"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}