'Absolutely disastrous!' Ed Miliband handed brutal takedown amid bid to 'replace' Rachel Reeves as Chancellor

The former Labour leader has received support from Government allies who are seeking to oust the current Chancellor from No11.

One Labour MP said: "The soft Left are hoping that if the May locals don't go well, they will use that as a point of leverage to get what they want out of the PM."

Discussing Mr Milband's chances of becoming the next Chancellor, Mr Keck told GB News: "My only hope when I saw this story is that Ed Miliband mixing up his holidays. Maybe he's mixed up Christmas and April Fool's Day, because I really can't think of anyone more ill-suited to the role of Chancellor.

"I think I'd trust an arsonist to run a petrol station over Ed Miliband running Britain's economic and fiscal policy. I think it would be absolutely disastrous."

Pressed by host Nana Akua on why he believes the Energy Secretary would be a poor choice, he added: "The root cause of our economic problems, it's been demonstrated time and time again is that we are taxing far, far too much, we are spending far too much, we have got far too many people on benefits, and we've got far too many regulations on business.

"Ed Miliband looks at Rachel Reeves's time in the office and bluntly thinks she hasn't spent enough, she hasn't taxed enough, she hasn't increased benefits enough and she hasn't brought in enough regulations. And critically, he's probably thinking we need to go further and faster on net zero, probably one of the root causes for our and economic malaise at the moment.

"So Ed Miliband is someone who wants to pour more petrol on the fire rather than try and put it out."

As Nana argued that in Mr Miliband's eyes, Britain is "leading the way" on net zero, Mr Keck responded: "Well, listen, if you don't care about Britain's economy and Britain's long term economic prosperity, and you only care about bringing carbon emissions down, then net zero is absolutely a worthy priority.

"But if you have any interest in the economic standing of this country, the fact that we have the most expensive energy bills in the world, clearly it's correlated with the fact that we are one of the most progressive and the most advanced on net zero.

"Renewable energy is unfortunately a lot more expensive than more traditional fossil fuels and nuclear power, and it's Ed Miliband's main project and his main goal."

As Nana told Mr Keck that the push for net zero will mean "green jobs" for Britain, he hit back: "Well, those green jobs are paid for with incredibly high taxes, incredibly high energy bills, and the long term economic costs of the country.

"So, yeah, you might get a few extra energy jobs, but if as a result of it you've decimated your manufacturing, you've decimated your hospitality, then I wouldn't say it's worth it."

Asked by Nana if he believes Ms Reeves is the "better bet" as Labour's Chancellor, Mr Keck told GB News: "I mean, Rachel Reeves being the best... you can say that she might be the best of a really, really appallingly bad bunch, in terms of their financial awareness.

"At least Rachel Reeves had - well, we're not exactly sure how long as an economist, because it seems like she told fibs about that - but she does seem to have some basic understanding that you cannot just spend an unlimited amount."

He added: "But nevertheless, we are still seeing record levels of borrowing, record levels of tax and record levels of spend.

"So Rachel Reeves is still a woefully unsuitable person for this role. But as I said, the range of people available at the moment, there is a pretty terrible bunch."

Urging Rachel Reeves to "lift the tax burden" on Britons in order to secure economic growth, Mr Keck concluded: "We have to remember that the things that produce growth in this country are not the Government, it's businesses and it's taxpayers.

"And if you don't lift that burden on businesses, if you don't lift that burden on taxpayers, then you're not going to get economic growth.

"If you don't get economic growth, you don't get boosts to tax revenues, you don't get more jobs.

"So Ed Miliband looks at Rachel Reeves so far and thinks she hasn't been left wing enough, she hasn't taxed enough, she hasn't spent enough. As I said, it's only going to add fuel to the fire if he ends up being Chancellor."

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