Rachel Reeves tells MPs of plans to go ‘further and faster’ in pursuit of growth
Rachel Reeves tells MPs of plans to go ‘further and faster’ in pursuit of growth
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Chancellor reassures Labour colleagues that climate concerns go ‘hand in hand’ with economic ambitions. Rachel Reeves has told MPs the government needs to go “further and faster” to increase economic growth, as Downing Street sought to reassure people concerned about the environment that net zero and increasing output go “hand in hand”.
The chancellor has unnerved some Labour MPs and green campaigners with her increasingly punchy rhetoric about economic growth being a priority over preventing climate change, as she strives to improve the UK’s anaemic forecasts and drive up living standards.
In a speech on Wednesday, she is expected to outline her plans to radically alter planning rules and accelerate building and infrastructure projects, as well as backing airport expansion despite fears it may put the UK in breach of its legally binding carbon budget.
At a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Thursday, Reeves made a direct pitch to MPs, telling them there would be “no easy routes out” to growing the economy and the government must “start saying yes” to changes that could create wealth across the country.
“Have we done enough? No. We must go further and faster because the cost of living pressures are still very real for working people across Britain and the only way we can turn this around is through economic growth,” she told them. “Will that growth come easy? No. There are no easy routes out. There are always reasons for government to say no. Over the past six months as chancellor, my experience is that government has become used to saying no. That must change. We must start saying yes.”.
