'Will blame anyone but herself!' Mel Stride accuses Rachel Reeves of having 'no backbone' in blistering takedown

The Chancellor has admitted she is looking at potential tax rises and spending cuts to fill a black hole in her Budget, which she claims is partly due to the lingering impact of Brexit.

Ms Reeves said "of course, we’re looking at tax and spending" as she prepares for her November 26 statement.

Handing down his scathing verdict of Ms Reeves, Mr Stride told GB News: "The Chancellor will blame absolutely everybody except herself. It was this Government's choices that have caused the problem.

"They said during the run up to the general election, they would go for growth and they wouldn't be taxing everybody left, right and centre."

He added: "They whacked £25billion worth of tax increases on employers, which killed growth. They took down the economy, borrowed a lot of money, spent a lot of money, stoked inflation.

"And we've got the highest inflation in the G7 that's led to interest rates being higher."

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Highlighting the impact of Britain's "colossal debt" on the economy, Mr Stride explained: "And on that colossal debt mounting, they're adding to the servicing costs of that debt alone £100billion a year. That's twice what we spend on defence.

"And if you add all of that up, that's why you run out of fiscal headroom as we're seeing."

Criticising Ms Reeves's decision to potentially hike taxes further, the Shadow Chancellor stated: "And that's why you have a Government that is now coming back for yet more tax increases at the end of November, and the effect of that is to dampen the economy still further."

Offering a solution to the Chancellor in getting the economy back on track, Mr Stride urged Ms Reeves to "get a grip" on Government spending.

He told GB News: "And at the heart of the solution to this is getting a grip on Government spending.

"And we showed at our conference how that can be done, and that is what the Chancellor should be doing."

Mr Stride concluded: "But she doesn't have the backbone or the plan to do it. We're heading in now to a Budget at the end of November in which the Chancellor said yesterday, having broken all her previous promises, she's going to be putting taxes up.

"There's an appalling record on growth, and of course, that's what's filtering through to people feeling much harder up."