Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith has criticised Chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of her Spring Statement, blaming her previous budget decisions for the economic downturn. He said that the government is on the "back foot" and is failing to meet its own fiscal rules. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00The truth is we do have more, not just civil servants but public servants, people who operate
00:05in all these quangos which Labour have created even more under their watch. So if there's
00:10opportunities to save money for the taxpayer or put more money into the front line, that
00:14is something that directionally we have supported. But let's be clear why we're here. We're here
00:21because of the terrible choices that the Chancellor made in her original budget, raising an enormous
00:27amount of tax on business that has cooled the economy to the point that we're now in
00:32a per capita recession. Unemployment is rising, the government's borrowing rates are at a
00:3827 year high and all of that is coming home to roost. So first time round in her budget
00:44it was pensioners with the winter fuel allowance, farmers and businesses that paid the price.
00:49This time round it sounds like it's going to be civil servants and the disabled. When
00:54you are looking to make cuts to reduce the size of something you've actually properly
00:58got to say what you're going to stop doing rather than an arbitrary figure that's from
01:03a Chancellor who's on the back foot to try to fiddle the fiscal rules. Even on her own
01:08fiddled fiscal rules she's missed them, there's not enough headroom, she's going to have to
01:12come back for more, potentially this week, potentially again at another budget in the
01:17autumn if she's still in her role then.