Liz Truss's speech confirms Tories as party of fiscal irresponsibility, with public forced to pay the price – Ian Murray MP

As the Tories descended into civil war this week, millions of people are being left to foot the bill of this government’s economic incompetence.
Liz Truss speaks during the final day of the Conservative party conference (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)Liz Truss speaks during the final day of the Conservative party conference (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
Liz Truss speaks during the final day of the Conservative party conference (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

Whether it's the plummeting pound or the soaring costs of borrowing, every way you look at it the country is in crisis: a crisis made in Downing Street.

That’s some achievement by Liz Truss after only 30 days in power.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Even the co-architect of this mess, Kwasi Kwarteng, has recognised the scale of the problem they have caused, but his screeching U-turn on the 45p tax rate is too little, too late for the families who will have to pay higher mortgage rates for years to come.

The Conservatives have crashed the economy by handing enormous, unfunded tax cuts to those who earn millions and the very richest companies.

Liz Truss’s speech to the Conservative Party conference shows she’s completely out of touch, with no understanding of the Tories’ appalling record on growth and the affect of their disastrous policies on Edinburgh residents.

What a sorry state of affairs when the Bank of England’s former chief advisor was moved to warn “we can say goodbye to growth”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Truss and her Cabinet need to return to parliament, show us the economic forecasts generated by their chaos, and fully reverse this kamikaze budget.

While Putin’s aggression is to blame for some of the rise in oil and gas prices, this economic mess comes after 12 years of Tory-led governments of which Truss was a senior member for a decade.

Read More
‘Coup’, chaos and conflict: What we have learned from the Tory conference

This isn't some global issue, it happened as soon as the government stood up and announced its ‘mini-budget’. Tory ministers have damaged the UK's reputation and that leaves us all worse off.

Truss’s media appearances yesterday left us in no doubt that she’s not on the side of working people. We are all now paying the price for unfunded tax cuts which benefit only the very wealthiest.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

She won’t event ask the oil and gas companies to put more into the pot from their colossal additional profits driven by this crisis.

With the Tories we get a return to failed trickle-down economics: the idea where you make the rich even richer and hope some of it trickles down to the rest of us.

On the flip side, Labour will partner with business and unions to build the fairer, greener and more dynamic economy of the future. Our modern industrial strategy and Growth and Skills Levy shows exactly what this sort of partnership would look like.

Growing the economy by supporting working people to succeed and businesses to grasp the green and technological opportunities of tomorrow.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

This is a serious plan for growth rather than a trickle-down fantasy.

It’s now clearer than ever that Labour are the party of economic competence and the Tories are the party of fiscal irresponsibility.

It’s also clear we need to get them out of office now.

Scotland can ensure we deliver a fairer government for every community in the UK by backing Labour. Labour can be trusted with the economy and we’re on the side of everyone in Scotland. That will be music to the ears of Edinburgh citizens as they rake over the rubble of what the Tories have just done to their incomes.

Ian Murray is Labour MP for Edinburgh South

Comment Guidelines

National World encourages reader discussion on our stories. User feedback, insights and back-and-forth exchanges add a rich layer of context to reporting. Please review our Community Guidelines before commenting.