26 Sep Shadow armed forces minister Luke Pollard criticised the Government’s ‘appalling economic management’
THE Government has taken a “reckless gamble” with the economy that is tanking the pound, according to Labour’s shadow armed forces minister Luke Pollard.
He told GB News: “I’m afraid the economic outlook and the reckless gamble that was taken by the Government only a few days ago, that is trashing the value of our pound, I’m afraid will make life much harder for people around the country.
“Labour needs to offer not only a valid critique of the Government and their pretty appalling economic management, but also some positivity, some hope that it doesn’t have to be this way.
“There’s a better Britain that we can achieve a better Britain where people can pay their bills, where we can decarbonise our energy, and we can have less human effluent in our rivers, for instance, that’s the type of offer that Labour are making this week.
“But we’ve got to be positive. We can’t have any complacency because we need to win the next general election. And that won’t happen without an awful lot of hard work.”
Speaking to Tom Harwood at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, he said: “The Government has borrowed shameless amounts of money without a clear plan about where it is coming from, discovered an orchard of magic money trees, has trashed the pound.
“Given all the economic benefits to the richest 1% is a government that the public will not trust.
“I’m afraid what we’re seeing in the money markets today can be quite hard for people to understand what it means for their everyday life, but what it means is energy bills will continue to go up, oil and gas will continue to go up, food prices will continue to go up, and the Government will need to spend more money paying off the massive amounts of debt that they will incur with it.
“I’m afraid we’ve got a really tough winter ahead of us. That’s why we need to make sure that we are bold, that we are clear, but when Labour’s making a policy, we’re saying it is fully costed, we’re explaining where the money’s coming from for it.
“We are not having the situation as we are at the moment where all the economic benefit goes to the richest 1%. That’s not the way to run a country when so many people are struggling.”
Mr Pollard said: “We said when we announced the proposal for the energy freeze at the time the Government was refusing to adopt that policy, if you remember.
“So we set out how we pay for strengthening the windfall tax, because at the moment those oil and gas companies are not only getting away with not paying their fair share, they’ve had a huge cut in corporation tax…”
He added: “I’m afraid as we will see from the headlines today, the pound will continue to tank because the Government has been reckless, they’ve taken a gamble not just with the economy, but with each and every one of us, in terms of how much money that each one of us has in our wallets and our purses, because costs will continue to spiral inflation will continue to go up.
“But it doesn’t have to be that way…people need to recognise and know that there’s an alternative to what the Conservatives are offering.”
