Rachel Reeves told ‘Labour’s sums don’t add up’ over eye-watering £47bn demand
Labour’s sums do not add up and Rachel Reeves’s economic plan for Britain would torpedo her own fiscal rules, a Cabinet minister said.
The Chief Secretary to the Treasury has urged the Shadow Chancellor to outline how Labour will pay for borrowing an extra £47billion a year.
Laura Trott MP highlighted that, according to the Treasury watchdog, Labour’s plan would “break their fiscal rules”.
She said: “Labour’s sums just don’t add up, torpedoing their fiscal rules. Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves are now calling for the Government to borrow an extra £47billion a year, which based on the OBR’s most recent forecast would break their fiscal rules.”
The MP for Sevenoaks added: “How are they proposing to pay for this? What taxes would they raise or spending would they cut?
“Labour will always take the easy way out not the difficult long-term decisions, leaving you and your family to pay for it.
“Only Rishi Sunak will halve inflation, grow the economy and reduce debt, taking the long-term economic decisions needed to build a brighter future.”
The intervention from newly-minted minister Ms Trott, who has moved from her role as pensions minister after 383 days in the role, comes after new analysis from the Conservative Party calculated the total cost of Labour’s borrowing plans to be an eye-watering £47billion.
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They arrived at the figure after Ms Reeves said on Monday Labour would unfreeze income tax thresholds at a cost of £8.8billion in 2024-25.
The Shadow Chancellor has also said Labour would extend full expensing, a 100 percent allowance which allows companies to claim a deduction from taxable profits, which the Tories claim would come at a cost of £10.7billion in 2024-25.
Ms Reeves has already doubled down on Labour’s commitment to borrow £28billion, the Conservatives have highlighted.
Writing in The Times earlier this year, she said “the right way to deliver our green prosperity plan is to ramp up the investment over time, reaching a total of £28billion a year in the second half of the parliament at the latest”.
It comes after Labour claimed their plans were “fully funded” and would have “ironclad discipline” on fiscal decisions.
Ms Reeves said Labour would not “put forward anything that’s not fully costed and fully funded”.
She told Sky News in February: “I’ve been very clear on so as Keir including today that we weren’t put forward anything that’s not fully costed and fully funded and making unfunded commitments around tax.”
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