Responding to the slowdown in economic growth during the quarter to September, Chancellor Rachel Reeves emphasised that achieving growth is the "number one mission of this Government". However, she acknowledged that when she became chancellor, she was upfront about the "scale of the challenges" she had inherited, particularly regarding the state of public finances. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Growth is the number one mission of this government and of course I want growth to be stronger
00:05and to be felt by families across the United Kingdom. But I was really honest when I became
00:11Chancellor about the scale of the challenges that I inherited, particularly the situation
00:17with the public finances. We had to make a number of difficult decisions on spending,
00:21welfare and taxation, but those decisions have now been taken. We've wiped the slate
00:26clean after 14 years of chaos and mismanagement of our public finances and we're now able
00:34to move on because we've drawn a line under that period. That provides stability for businesses
00:40and families after the huge spikes in interest rates and inflation that we saw in the last
00:45Parliament. If you look at the forecasts from the independent experts, they have inflation
00:50and interest rates on a downward path. That is a world away from inflation going to more
00:55than 11% in the last Parliament and interest rates and mortgage rates going through the
01:00roof. If we hadn't have taken the action that we did last month to put the public finances
01:05on a firm footing, we would be in a situation again where interest rates would have to go
01:09up. That would not be good for business. We've provided stability that is essential to ensure
01:14our economy can grow.