Reeves facing calls to cancel controversial China trip as pound tumbles
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Labour chancellor under pressure as government borrowing costs surge, piling pressure on her spending plans. The chancellor Rachel Reeves is under pressure to cancel a controversial trip to China as the UK economy faces another tumultuous day on the markets.
Shadow home secretary Chris Philp blamed Labour for the soaring cost of government borrowing and said she “should stay in the UK fixing the mess her Budget has created”. Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey hit out at the Tories’ handling of the economy but also said Ms Reeves should cancel her visit and instead make an emergency announcement scrapping her national insurance hike, which his party has dubbed a ‘jobs tax’, and rebuild trade links with Europe.
On Thursday the pound tumbled to its lowest level against the US dollar for over a year as borrowing costs continued to surge, heaping more pressure on the government’s economic and spending plans. Treasury minister Darren Jones told MPs that UK gilt markets were continuing to "function in an orderly way" and there was no need for any kind of emergency intervention.
But he faced jeers from opposition MPs who demanded to know where Ms Reeves was, with shadow chancellor Mel Stride hitting out that she was “nowhere to be seen” and one Tory accusing her of already having “fled” to China. Ms Reeves is due to jet off with a delegation of City grandees as Labour seeks closer links with Beijing as part of its bid for economic growth.
