How to revive the shellshocked UK economy - as growth evaporates after disastrous Labour Budget
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Just six months into government, Labour’s promises of growth lie in shreds, amid a stagnating economy and stubborn inflation. In her first big speech of the New Year, the Chancellor will try to restore confidence and – crucially – to discredit the assessment last month by the Bank of England that it was the record-breaking tax rises in Labour’s October Budget that brought the economy grinding to a halt.
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Rachel Reeves will try to convince us that the Government has ‘fixed the foundations’. Yet anyone expecting Britain on its current trajectory to bounce back in 2025 is fooling themselves. Labour’s efforts to fast-track recovery with planning and pension reforms are already sinking in bureaucratic treacle and promises of a manufacturing revolution – fuelled by the climate-change agenda and Great British Energy, the new state investment vehicle to power it – are simply pie in the sky.
If the Starmer Government is serious about restoring shell-shocked business confidence and fulfilling its growth ‘mission’, it needs to recognise that Britain’s wealth creators don’t live in Whitehall and they are not represented by stubborn union bosses.
Rocky start: In her first big speech of 2025, the Chancellor (pictured) will try to discredit the idea that it was Labour’s October Budget that has brought the economy to a halt. The more investment that’s ploughed into an inefficient state sector, the less cash there can be for entrepreneurship and enterprise – the real levers of growth.
