Robert Jenrick says "confidence has collapsed within our economy", after the latest Office for National Statistics figures show it contracted by 0.1% in January. The shadow justice secretary says the figures are a result of Rachel Reeves' "disastrous" Autumn budget, and urges the chancellor to stop her "anti-growth measures" and "put the economy back on firm footing again". 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, this is very concerning news, but it's not unexpected.
00:03This is a direct result of the disastrous decisions taken by Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor,
00:08in her budget last year.
00:10She hiked taxes, particularly on businesses large and small, with the national insurance
00:14rise that's going to come into force next month.
00:16And that's meant that businesses across this country are now laying off staff and confidence
00:21has collapsed within our economy.
00:23In 12 days' time, she's coming back to Parliament for an emergency budget, something she said
00:27she didn't need to have to do, as a result of the mistakes that she's made.
00:32And we're urging her to change course, to stop these anti-growth measures, to cancel
00:36these tax rises that she's put in place, and to put the economy back on a firm footing
00:40again.
00:41The Conservative government left the economy as the fastest-growing economy in the G7.
00:45Inflation on target at 2 per cent, unemployment low.
00:50All of these things have changed, have declined, as a result of the terrible decisions taken
00:56by Rachel Reeves.
00:58She's hurt the economy, she's raised taxes, inflation is higher than target now.
01:03She needs to take responsibility for these mistakes, and there's still time for her to
01:07unwind some of those tax rises before they come into effect and do further damage to
01:11the economy.