People up and down the country are struggling to make ends meet and the only answer the Tories have for them is to ‘work harder’.
The Tories have always prided themselves on being the party of sound finances. ‘You can trust us with the economy’ they always claim.
And yet despite the economy being seen by many as ‘safe ground’ for the Tories, they’ve made a complete mess of it, with stagnation, anaemic growth and poor productivity now coming to define the economy under the Tories. We’re also on the verge of recession. That’s what the Tories have to show after 14 years in office.
They’ve presided over a cost-of-living crisis and soaring inflation, which they tried to claim was due to factors beyond their control, even though other countries with similar problems had lower inflation. Meanwhile, the Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey recently claimed that the Autumn Statement tax cuts stoked inflation.
People up and down the country are struggling to make ends meet and the only answer the Tories have for them is to ‘work harder’.
One fact alone sums up just how much of a mess the Tories have made of the economy.
Fifteen years of economic stagnation has left the typical UK household £8,300 poorer than peers in countries like France, Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands.
The findings come from a recent report released by the Resolution Foundation and the London School of Economics, which blamed a “toxic combination” of low growth and high inequality.
The researchers proposed sweeping measures to boost productivity by closing the wealth gap between Britain’s cities, championing services exports and increasing public investment.
Sunak meanwhile has made ‘growing the economy’ one of his five key pledges to voters in the run up to the general election. The UK saw no economic growth between April to June and a 0.1% contraction in July to September, ONS revisions show.
There are fears that the latest ONS figures due to be published on Thursday will show that we’ve hit recession over the last quarter.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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