The state of the country’s finances is the worst since the Second World War, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury has said ahead of the launch of the party’s plan for a “decade of national renewal”.
Darren Jones told GB News: “Rachel Reeves has already said that if Labour is to win the election later this year, it will be the worst fiscal inheritance any party's had since the Second World War and that's why we talk about a decade of national renewal.
“There'll be some things we can do immediately and public services obviously one of our priorities, but in the long run, we need to get growth back into the economy so that people do feel better off and businesses are paying more tax off the back of profits so that we have more money coming into the Treasury for tax cuts and public service investment in a sustainable way.”
In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he continued: “I personally will highlight the fact that after 14 years of the country bumbling along the bottom now, that now in a recession we've really got to focus on what the Government can do to get it back on track.
“For us, that's around stability, investment and reform, political and economic stability, which we've not had for a long time, a decade of investment, private and public and the Government really taking seriously the reforms that are necessary to deliver for our country.”
He added: “A lot of economic growth comes from the private sector. It doesn't come from spending people's taxes. And so you want businesses to be having the confidence to invest, whether that's in building things or growing their economy and employing more people, when those businesses are more productive, offering those pay rises to their workers so that they can feel better off too.
“But we hear all the time from investors and businesses that even though they've got money to invest, they're not investing in the UK right now for a whole host of reasons. Many of those reasons are things that a government can fix by working in partnership with the private sector. And that's why we've set out our plans for doing just that.”
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