Financial black holes don’t get much darker - Ian Murray

The Bank of England must decide whether to cut interest ratesThe Bank of England must decide whether to cut interest rates
The Bank of England must decide whether to cut interest rates
Every household is paying the price for Tory economic incom-petence and will be for some time.

If you have remortgaged recently, those higher rates are the direct result of Liz Truss’s disastrous budget.

If you still stare at your monthly energy bill in disbelief, that’s because the Tories failed to take measures to increase the UK’s energy security – leaving us too reliant on expensive imports.

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And if you struggle to afford your weekly shopping bill, that’s because living costs have outstripped income. The Tories burned the house down – and then tried to hide the evidence.

When Labour entered government just a few weeks ago, we knew that we would be inheriting an almighty mess and that difficult decisions would have to be taken.

Keir Starmer, Anas Sarwar and Rachel Reeves were upfront with voters about that throughout the campaign and never shied away from the truth that the economic inheritance would be appalling.

But once we opened and audited the books, it was revealed the Tories had planned billions of pounds of government overspending. A gigantic £22bn in-year black hole - emptying the Treasury emergency reserves four times over since just April

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The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is rightly aghast – it also only found out about the extent of these pressures last week and has ordered an unprecedented review.

The Tories tried to hide their disregard for your money. Labour’s task now is to fix the foundations to deliver a better country, and Rachel has got straight to work – making difficult choices she didn’t want or expect to make, but doing so with full transparency, honesty and fairness.

This is absolutely no return to austerity. That’s a cast iron commitment. We will make fairer choices and the right investments for our country’s future, like protecting the poorest pensioners and prioritising a pay rise for nurses and teachers.

We will launch a major drive to ensure the 120,000 Scottish pensioners who are entitled to pension credit, but don’t claim it, get the support.

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Tackling poverty isn’t about a sticking plaster solution so favoured by the SNP – it requires rebuilding and regrowing the economy so that everyone can flourish.

We will ensure a better deal for working people, by introducing a genuine living wage and by banning exploitative zero hours contracts. The agreement with pay review bodies will boost pay for our public sector workers and that additional money will come to Scotland.

We will also establish GB energy to put Scotland at the forefront of making us a clean energy superpower, creating jobs and bringing cheaper bills.

That’s how you tackle the fundamentals of poverty.

We know, unsurprisingly, the Tories lied to the country. But I’m angry to see the SNP unwittingly doing their dirty work for them: deliberately conflating financial issues to confuse the public and resorting to cheap political games.

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They would do well to take time to reflect on the verdict of the Scottish people at the election, rather than repeating false Tory rhetoric – not least when the SNPs own record in tackling poverty and growing the economy is pitiful.

Grown-up politics is back at Westminster. We are calling time on the dishonest politics of the Tories and their SNP bedfellows.

Ian Murray, MP for Edinburgh South

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