{"id":442131,"date":"2026-02-24T01:14:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:14:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/442131\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T01:14:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:14:11","slug":"starmer-and-reeves-say-uk-is-booming-wait-until-you-see-real-figures-personal-finance-finance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/442131\/","title":{"rendered":"Starmer and Reeves say UK is booming &#8211; wait until you see real figures | Personal Finance | Finance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"withoutCaption\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Starmer-Reeves-nonsense-2-6761212.jpg\" class=\"zoomEnabled\" data-img=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/23\/1200x712\/secondary\/Starmer-Reeves-nonsense-2-6761212.jpg?r=1771869641766\" alt=\"Starmer-Reeves-nonsense-2\" title=\"Starmer-Reeves-nonsense-2\" width=\"590\" height=\"350\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves point one way, the real world points another (Image: Getty)<\/p>\n<p>In Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves\u2019s world, everything is just dandy. The cost-of-living crisis is over, inflation is falling, the economy is growing, housebuilding is booming and it\u2019s all because they\u2019ve brilliantly fixed the foundations of the UK economy. That\u2019s the message they\u2019re trying to flog us today. They&#8217;re hoping reckon it&#8217;ll spark a dramatic turnaround in their political fortunes. It won&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a problem. Voters inhabit the real world, where none of this matches their daily experiences. They&#8217;re not fools, and know what&#8217;s really going on. But that won\u2019t stop Starmer and Reeves. <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/finance\/personalfinance\/2016351\/Rachel-Reeves-12-rotten-lies-destroy-her\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Time and again they\u2019ve stretched the truth<\/a>, arrogantly assuming we&#8217;ll swallow their lies. We\u2019ve had grand pledges, slippery statistics and a conveyor belt of U-turns, at least 15 and counting. Now they&#8217;re going into overdrive.<\/p>\n<p>Starmer and Reeves need a reality check. So here\u2019s a brisk audit of their headline claims against the hard numbers.<\/p>\n<p>First, Starmer claims inflation is falling thanks to his government&#8217;s \u201cchoices\u201d. Yes, inflation dipped from 3.4% to 3% in January. But in June 2024, the month before Labour took office, inflation stood at just 2%. Today, it\u2019s 50% higher than the rate they inherited. Yet Starmer claims to have cut inflation. It&#8217;s pathetic.<\/p>\n<p> Read more: <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/finance\/personalfinance\/2174320\/rachel-reeves-biggest-blunder-new-wave-of-voters-flock-Nigel-Farage\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> &#8216;Rachel Reeves&#8217;s biggest blunder yet \u2013 new wave of voters flock to Nigel Farage&#8217; <\/a><\/p>\n<p> Read more: <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/finance\/personalfinance\/2172299\/rachel-reeves-tips-uk-into-death-spiral-today-angela-rayner-delivers-killer-blow\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> &#8216;Rachel Reeves tips UK into death spiral \u2013 Angela Rayner delivers killer blow&#8217; <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The PM even had the gall to claim that \u201clower food prices\u201d were easing the cost-of-living crisis. That simply isn\u2019t true. Food prices aren\u2019t &#8220;lower&#8221;, they\u2019re just rising at a slower pace than before. Claiming otherwise is economically illiterate. And this man is our PM?<\/p>\n<p>He also takes credit for falling petrol prices, conveniently ignoring the fact that these are driven by global oil supply and demand, not the UK government.<\/p>\n<p data-mce-linkchecker-status=\"valid\">Similarly, Reeves boasts <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/finance\/personalfinance\/2170045\/reeves-starmer-arent-content-killing-econony-insulting-us-too\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">about six interest rate cuts on her watch<\/a>. But it\u2019s the Bank of England that sets rates, not the Chancellor. They might have fallen a lot further had she not driven inflation up through her disastrous tax-and-spend policies.<\/p>\n<p>Her \u00a326billion rise in employer&#8217;s National Insurance, two huge minimum wage hikes and generous public sector pay hikes are all inflationary.<\/p>\n<p>Starmer and Reeves also bang on about growth. Yet the economy grew just 0.1% in the third quarter of last year and 0.1% in the final quarter too. Those are rounding errors. The economy would be growing far faster if Reeves hadn\u2019t taxed it to a standstill.<\/p>\n<p>Months after Labour took power, <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/finance\/personalfinance\/1926490\/Starmer-Rachel-Reeves-housing-crisis-construction-industry-Angela-Rayner\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">I poured ridicule on their grandstanding claim they&#8217;d build 300,000 homes a year<\/a>, a total of 1.5 million over five years.<\/p>\n<p>I said housebuilders simply didn\u2019t have the capacity, and I was right. Projections now suggest Britain will build at most 167,000 homes a year, little more than half Starmer\u2019s target.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s actually been a 40% drop in housing starts compared with 2023, when the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/conservative-party\" data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|AutoLink\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tories<\/a> were in power.<\/p>\n<p>Reeves talks about protecting jobs, yet unemployment has climbed from 4.1% to 5.2% on her watch, adding almost half a million to the dole queue. Youth unemployment is surging. It\u2019s a disaster \u2013 and she should own it. How dare Labour talk of renewal <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/finance\/personalfinance\/2174320\/rachel-reeves-biggest-blunder-new-wave-of-voters-flock-Nigel-Farage\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">while blighting the prospects of an entire generation?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Every politician talks up their achievements. These two have more reason than most, because they have no real achievements to speak of. The gap between rhetoric and reality is widening. And voters, living in the real world, can&#8217;t help but notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves point one way, the real world points another (Image: Getty) In Keir Starmer&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,1431,27876,420,1445,56,1893,54,55],"class_list":["post-442131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-inflation","tag-inflation-rates","tag-keir-starmer","tag-rachel-reeves","tag-uk","tag-uk-economy","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}