With yet another major pledge broken in an election year, here’s how some of the voices on the left reacted to the news.
The UK has once more entered recession, despite Rishi Sunak’s repeated claims that the economy had ‘turned a corner’. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics are a major blow to Sunak’s authority, given that he had promised to ‘grow the economy’ as one of his five key pledges to voters when he took office.
With yet another major pledge broken in an election year, here’s how some of the voices on the left reacted to the news.
The Trades Union Congress slammed years of ‘Tory stagnation’. Responding to today’s GDP figures, showing GDP fell by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023, TUC General Secretary Paul Nowak said: “The UK economy is in dire straits. After years of Tory stagnation, we are now in technical recession.
“The Conservatives’ economic failures are hitting jobs and living standards. With household budgets at breaking point, spending is down and the economy is shrinking. At the same time our crumbling public services are starved of much-needed funding.
“After being in power for 14 years, the Tories have driven our economy into a ditch and have no idea how to get out.
“It’s time for a government with a serious long-term plan and strategy for renewal, to revive our economy and sustain growth into future.”
Labour’s Darren Jones, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, told Times Radio: “The fact we are now in recession shows that his plan has failed and the Conservative Party has run out of ideas for turning it around.”
Jones went on to add that GDP per head has been declining quarter on quarter across the whole of the last year, highlighting how the public has endured the largest reduction in real living standards since the 1950s.
LFF columnist Prem Sikka blamed the Tory government for the recession. He posted on X: “UK economy fell into recession at the end of last yr. Crisis made by the Govt – Real wage cuts, high rents & interest rates; no curbs on profiteering; soaring cost-of-living.
“Govt doing more of the same, enriching a few. Must redistribute income/wealth.”
The New Economics Foundation posted on X: “It’s no surprise the UK fell into a recession at the end of last year given this government’s long standing mismanagement of the economy and the Bank of England’s panicked interest rate rises.
“This government’s longstanding failure to invest means that the UK will struggle to rebound. For ordinary people this means low wages, falling standards of living and crumbling public services.
“We need the government to seriously increase investment in green industries, public services, housing and skills to boost our productivity and secure the increase in living standards we deserve.”
Journalist and commentator Paul Mason posted on X: “The UK is in recession – it’s official. Nothing “technical” about it: it’s induced by a clueless government and a bunch of free-market loons at the Bank of England. Only Labour has a plan for growth…”
Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, said: “Rishi Sunak’s promise to grow the economy is now in tatters. The prime minister can no longer credibly claim that his plan is working or that he has turned the corner on more than 14 years of economic decline under the Conservatives that has left Britain worse off.
“This is Rishi Sunak’s recession, and the news will be deeply worrying for families and business across Britain.”
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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