Mel Stride: “Growth, growth, growth” the Chancellor said. “Shrink, shrink, shrink” is what she’s delivered

Sir Mel Stride is the shadow Chancellor 

It feels like this Labour government can’t touch anything without breaking it. Everything they do goes wrong, whether it’s releasing prisoners, briefing against their own cabinet ministers, or – most importantly – mismanaging our economy.

Yesterday’s ONS figures made for grim reading. The UK economy actually shrank in September. That follows on from zero growth in August, and another fall in July. Britain, under Labour, has slipped into the slow lane, falling behind our global rivals.

Before the election, Rachel Reeves thundered that her mission would be “growth, growth, growth.” On entering office, she promised a “budget for economic growth” and the most “pro-business Treasury” in our nation’s history. Instead, she’s delivered the exact opposite: a job-killing, confidence-crushing tax raid that has strangled enterprise and snuffed out economic dynamism.

Labour’s pattern is painfully familiar: bold promises, followed by weak results. Reeves’ first Budget was supposed to have ‘fixed the foundations’. In reality, it has completely undermined them.

From day one, the Government’s instincts have been misguided. They talk the language of business, but govern with the mindset of the unions. Reeves claims to back enterprise but punishes it; she speaks of fiscal responsibility but spends and borrows like there’s no tomorrow; she says you can’t tax your way to growth then launches the biggest tax raid in recent memory.

The impact is clear across the economy. Business confidence has sunk to record lows and investment has stalled. Unemployment is back up to levels not seen since Covid. Inflation has almost doubled since the election.

Entrepreneurs, the real creators of growth, are exhausted by uncertainty, red tape and punitive taxation. A “relentless focus on growth” has become a relentless cycle of excuses.

We are now witnessing Labour’s  tax doom loop in real time – higher taxes to fund ever-increasing spending, which strangle growth, leading to lower revenues, and so yet more tax rises. Around and around we go. Poorer, weaker, and more stagnant each time. The jobs tax was the first link in that chain, hitting hardest where growth is born: among small businesses and entrepreneurs. As someone who has built businesses from scratch, I know the cost of risk, and how important it is to reward it.

Labour taxed work just when Britain needed to reward effort. Now, facing the consequences of her own choices, Reeves seems poised for another round of tax hikes. The pattern is always the same: when Labour’s sums fall short, it is working families and businesses who have to brace themselves.

Just look at the uncertainty we have seen over recent months thanks to the Labour chaos. Constant speculation about tax rises, because it has been obvious for some time that the Chancellor has created a colossal black hole in the finances – not just because of the fragile state of the economy, but because of Labour’s humiliating and unfunded U-turns on welfare and Winter Fuel Payments.

That speculation has had a chilling effect on business confidence, investment and hiring. Endless rumours of wealth taxes, ISA raids, pension changes and the rest. How can anyone plan for tomorrow when the rules look like they are shifting every five minutes? And incredibly, much of that speculation has been actively fuelled by the Treasury, constantly flying kites with briefings to the press.

And the chaotic management of the economy is compounded by chaos at the top. The Prime Minister began setting up his own separate Budget team in Downing Street months ago. Now No10 itself is riven with infighting. Starmer’s Cabinet resembles a circular firing squad, and the economy is caught in the crossfire.

If Keir Starmer cannot control his own team, he cannot control spending. And if he cannot control spending, he cannot control inflation, borrowing, or growth. Britain needs leadership with a backbone and a credible plan. Only the Conservatives offer both.

We have set out a clear path to £47 billion in savings, enabling genuine tax cuts and deficit reduction under our “Golden Economic Rule”. Stability and growth must go hand in hand.

The stagnation we are experiencing is not inevitable. The mistakes are obvious and can be undone. We can reduce the burdens on businesses and households and give them the certainty they are desperate for. But all this hangs on the next Budget. If Reeves doubles down on her tax addiction, we will only slip further into stagnation.

Kemi and I have set out a clear alternative to Labour’s chaos and mismanagement. Control spending, cut the deficit, cut taxes, back business and reward work. Our economy, and even our society, have become far too dependent on the state. We believe in the ingenuity and drive of the British people – not in more handouts, more regulation and more borrowing.

We are the only party who gets it.

Labour have no backbone; the Lib Dems have no plan; and Reform have no clue.

The economy is the ground we have to fight on. We cannot let Labour get away with the chaos and the failure.