'It's HER fault!' Nana Akua delivers blistering takedown of Rachel Reeves amid economy woes

In remarks during an International Monetary Fund (IMF) committee, she told leading financial figures that the UK's productivity challenge has worsened since leaving the European Union (EU).

Ms Reeves said: "The UK's productivity challenge has been compounded by the way in which the UK left the European Union."

Delivering her verdict on the remarks, Nana told GB News: "In 2019, she made a speech in the House of Commons which explained why you should never raise National Insurance on employers or employees, because it's a growth tax, yet she has done exactly that.

"Why can't she own the problem that she has created, which means no growth, employers not employing people, which means her tax take is smaller, which means the economy is less productive?"

Responding to Nana, Labour Councillor Stuart Fawcett responded: "I think it comes back to the consensus we have on the British economy and the way we spend money, which mirrors that of a household budget or even a business budget.

"So if a business turns over all the money they take over the counter, £1billion a year, currently we're 97 per cent of GDP, so we're nearly £1billion in debt in order to do that as a country, if we were to mirror that. So if your household income was £30,000, you have £30,000 worth of debt in order to make that happen. That is not a sustainable way of doing it.

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"What are your choices? to cut what you're spending, what's going out? Or do you increase that ceiling by making more growth and making that more productive?"

Nana argued: "It's her own fault though, isn't it? Because they came up with the rules, no raising of income tax, no raising of VAT (Value Added Tax) and no raising of National Insurance. So if she had more freedom and flexibility to perhaps raise income tax, then that would have been wiser.

"These are all things that she put in place, so this is her fault, so how she has the audacity to start blaming Brexit when we can all clearly see that the fact that inflation has risen is really down to a lot of it the policies that they've put forward. I find it just shocking that she then thinks it's wise to then blame Brexit."

The Labour Councillor defended the Chancellor, explaining: "I don't think the Chancellor is talking down Britain at all. I think the talking point is very clear with our trade talks. We want to be more Atlantic-facing, we want to do greater trade on the world stage.

"An issue that we are having at the minute as a country is the deal we have with the European Union and the practice that enables businesses to have access to that market, because access is a basis of growth.

"So now, because of the fact we are out of the EU, President Trump has actually enabled us to have much lower tariffs than the European Union."

Nana interjected again, arguing: "Exactly, because of Brexit that we've got a better trade deal."

Mr Fawcett added: "I'm not arguing the fact that having left the European Union, as someone who voted for Brexit, we're seeing some some benefits of that.

"On a on a fiscal level, the other option is to pump more money into the economy, make borrowing commitments for everyday spending, and the last time we did that was that Liz Truss's Budget. People's mortgages went through the roof, and that is at the point when inflation went absolutely through the ceiling, and we have to avoid that."