The shadow chancellor says the Treasury "should not be popping champagne corks" over the unexpected dip in inflation to 2.5% in December. Mel Stride adds the government has "killed growth stone dead" after inheriting an economy that was "much better than they make out". Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Well, it's always good when inflation comes down when we're in the current situation,
00:03but the Treasury should not be popping the champagne corks because we have an economy
00:08in which this government has killed growth stone dead. They talked the economy down when
00:13they came into office. They've taxed the living daylights out of businesses. And on inflation,
00:19if you look at the forecast that the Office for Budget Responsibility have put forward,
00:23it will be higher in every year than it would have been under us. And that means interest
00:27rates being higher for longer than they would otherwise have been, which means that people
00:31paying more, for example, on their mortgages. And there's what's going on in the bond markets,
00:36which it is the case that bond yields across the world are generally rising, but they're
00:40particularly rising here because the markets have a general lack of confidence in the UK
00:47economy compared with other economies. Well, when they came into office, we left them with
00:54the fastest growth in the G7. We had near record levels of employment. We had near
00:59record low levels of unemployment. We'd had 13 consecutive months of real wage growth.
01:05And on inflation, we brought it down from above 11% right down on election day to bang
01:11on target at 2%. So that wasn't a bad inheritance. It's taken them six months to completely destroy
01:17that. I think their inheritance was much better than they make out and made out. And I think
01:22the decisions that the Chancellor has taken, particularly around tax, spending and borrowing,
01:29have been ruinous. I think they've killed growth stone dead. And you're seeing unemployment
01:35going up and so on. And just look at what's happening in the bond markets. Not only are
01:40we seeing these yields increasing quite dramatically, and more than is the case for other countries,
01:45and that's an important point, we're also seeing a lot of pressure on the pound. And
01:49that's an unusual combination, but that speaks to a loss of confidence in the UK economy
01:54out there due to the decisions that this government has made. And this is ultimately a crisis
01:59made in Downing Street.