Britain needs shock therapy.
In an interview for the Financial Times, Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has said she is planning to model himself on Argentinian President Javier Milei.
Well, let’s look at his record.
When Javier Milei took office, Argentina was on the brink — inflation over 200 per cent, collapsing currency, zero trust in government, and a bloated state bleeding money.
GB NEWS
|Jacob Rees-Mogg said Britain needs shock therapy
Milei acted fast and decisively. He cut government spending, eliminated the money printing that had fuelled inflation, and devalued the peso to reflect real market conditions. It was tough medicine — but it worked.
In just months, inflation dropped sharply, the country recorded a budget surplus for the first time in over a decade, and markets started to stabilize. Foreign investors returned, and confidence began to rebuild.
Today, Argentina’s economy isn’t just surviving — it’s finding its footing again, with a leaner state, more disciplined finances, and a sense of direction it hasn’t had in years.
His ascent is proof that socialism leads to failure and that freedom leads to prosperity.
But how would this translate in Britain?
Well, the UK is sitting on a public debt pile of about 100 per cent of GDP — the highest sustained level since the aftermath of World War II. We’re spending over £110 billion a year just on interest payments — more than we spend on education, policing, or defence. And much of that is on index-linked gilts, meaning inflation pushes the bill even higher.
Growth is anaemic. Productivity is flat. The tax burden is at a 70-year high. And yet the state keeps growing — spending, borrowing, regulating, inflating. We’re not far from a tipping point.
But here’s the prescription.
A Milei-style approach would mean radical surgery. First: stop the bleeding. Slash wasteful public spending. Shut down unproductive agencies and quangos.
If the following went, no one would notice or mind, the departments of culture, media and sport, energy, net zero and science, DEFRA, trade and business but keep the board of trade to negotiate trade deals, and then cull the quangos.
Just as an hors d'oeuvres, let’s get rid of UKRI, ACAS, the FRC, the SBC, the TRA, the LPC, the RPE, the CAC, the GCA, the ORCIC, the PCA, the arts council, Ofcom, the committee on climate change, the environment agency, British Wool, the forestry commission, and there are dozens of others that could all go with residual needs handed to ministers. This would save billions, especially when combined with a hiring freeze. We need to aim for a primary surplus.
Then: unleash the private sector. Cut corporation tax. Simplify income tax. Axe regulations that choke growth. Make Britain a magnet for capital and innovation again. Reinvigorate the retained EU law act. Scrap otiose EU regulations.
It won’t be painless. Cameron could not even trim the forestry commission. But like Argentina, the UK needs shock therapy — not more slow decline. We need to shrink the state, tame inflation, and restore economic freedom before we go the way of Japan or worse.
In short: stop printing, stop borrowing, stop socialism and return the UK to its foundations of freedom and capitalism. This is the only way to truly end the era of managed decline and restore prosperity to everyone.