The shadow financial secretary has dismissed comparisons between Margaret Thatcher and Sir Keir Starmer, who likened his government to the ex-prime minister's. Criticising the Labour government's budget, Gareth Davies claimed Chancellor Rachel Reeves's budget has created an environment "not conducive to economic growth". The Tory MP's comments come as Reeves announced government support for Heathrow expansion in a major speech, in which the chancellor said a third runway could increase potential GDP by 0.43% by 2050 and could create over 100,000 jobs. Report by Faragt. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Today she'll be clutching for hastily arranged policies to drastically try and reverse what's
00:06happened in our economy since they took power, which is declining growth. And that's because
00:10of her budget, which introduced a series of tax measures that have hurt businesses and
00:15have resulted in businesses having to cut staff. That is anti-growth. You can't have
00:21pro-growth deregulation at the same time as you've got anti-growth taxation. The two don't
00:27work together. Obviously, we will support any measures that can deregulate our economy,
00:33free up businesses, but we'll have to see the details of what she announces later today.
00:38Well, I heard this morning that Keir Starmer is trying to emulate Margaret Thatcher, actually.
00:42I can tell you as a Member of Parliament for Grantham, the home place, hometown of Margaret
00:47Thatcher, I know a lot of people who knew Margaret Thatcher, they were friends with
00:50Margaret Thatcher, and they tell me Keir Starmer is no Margaret Thatcher. He is trying desperately
00:56to find anything that will help turn around the economy on the back of a budget that hit
01:02economic growth. It is not going to work unless they drastically address the measures in that
01:08budget that were so harmful for businesses around the country, while at the same time,
01:14we've got Angela Rayner's led Workers' Rights Bill, which is adding even more regulation
01:19to businesses and hurting growth. And so, I'm afraid, no matter what they say today,
01:25we are in a situation where the country is not conducive to business investment. Heathrow
01:30is a critical port for our country, and what my leader, Kerry Bainock, has said very clearly
01:36is that we will support any transport infrastructure that can be delivered, that's value for money,
01:42that grows our economy, but it has to meet certain criterions. So, we haven't had an
01:46announcement from Rachel Reeves yet, but we'll look at the details to how she will mitigate
01:52some of the many issues that previous governments have faced when they've put this forward,
01:56transportation on the M25, the reservoirs that exist, and the millions of new people
02:02that will have a flight path near their home. They need to address how they're going to
02:07deal with that before we can offer any support.