Sir Keir Starmer gave his full backing to Chancellor Rachel Reeves despite the UK’s economic woes and claimed productivity could be doubled by AI in less than five years. He insisted that the Chancellor was doing a “fantastic job” despite the controversy over her autumn Budget and the Pound falling further in value on Monday, with the cost of Government borrowing hitting a new high.
The Prime Minister stressed that delivering economic growth is his Government’s No1 priority. But the economy is currently flatlining with dark clouds in recent days from Sterling’s drop in value and the cost of UK borrowing rising which will hit the public finances.
The economic woes have sparked speculation that Ms Reeves could be replaced as Chancellor. But Sir Keir bluntly dismissed the idea, while stopping short of confirming she would stay in the post for the next four-and-a-half years. “Rachel Reeves is doing a fantastic job, she has my full confidence and she has the full confidence of the entire party,” he said after a keynote speech at Google’s AI campus in London.
“She was given an incredibly challenging task at the Budget because not only was the economy broken but we had a £20 billion black hole. “I’m 100 per cent confident that we will get the growth that we need.”. The Tories deny they left a £20 billion black hole in the public finances and say they handed over the wider economy to the new Labour government in a good state.
