Shadow chancellor delivers blistering attack on Reeves during Spring Statement
26th March 2025
Responding to Reeves’s Spring Statement, Mel Stride accused the chancellor of making the UK “poorer” and “weaker” with her recent policies.
Shadow chancellor for the Conservatives, Mel Stride, delivered a scathing response to Rachel Reeves’s Spring Statement today (26th March).
Calling her the “architect of her own misfortune” and referring to the Spring Statement as an “emergency budget”, he criticised the chancellor for making the UK “poorer” and “weaker” since taking office.
Growth halved
The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) today revised down the UK’s growth forecast for 2025 from 2% to 1%, a figure Reeves said she is “not happy with”. But longer term, the OBR says there will be year on year GDP growth until 2029/30.
In response, Mr Stride said: “The UK was growing at the fastest rate in the G7 […] and now we learn today the OBR have stated growth has been halved this year, cut in two as a consequence of the decisions and choices of the Rt Hon Lady.”
The OBR also predicted inflation will rise to an average of 3.2% next year before it starts to fall – and it’s expected to reach the Bank of England’s 2% target from 2027.
This morning’s updated inflation figure showed the rate at which everyday prices are rising fell to 2.8%.
This is twice the level forecast under the Conservative government in 2024, Mr Stride said. This will impact households and businesses across the country, he added.
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“She fiddled the targets”
At one point the speaker of the House, Lindsay Hoyle, intervened to ask the shadow chancellor to reconsider his language, when Mr Stride said:
“She rolled the dice on a wafer-thin margin and she lost! Reckless, with her fingers crossed. She fiddled the targets and she missed them!”
Commenting on the national insurance hikes in the October Budget, he said: “She taxed jobs and wealth creation, she’s destroyed livelihoods, businesses clobbered big and small, small companies – the backbone of our economy – crushed on the altar of her ineptitude.”
He added that millions of people across the country will be waiting in “fear and trepidation for the start of the new tax year, buckling under the burden of tax”.
Reeves’ Spring Statement
As well as the halving of the growth forecast and inflation predictions, the Spring Statement saw Reeves announce that the government will move from a deficit of £36.1bn in 2025-26 to a surplus of £9.9bn by 2029/30.
The Treasury will also reach its target of bringing in more than it spends two years ahead of schedule, she said.
Meanwhile, the Universal Credit health element will be cut by 50% then frozen for new claimants.
There will also be a £2.2bn funding boost in the defence budget for 2025-26.
Reeves referred to the fiscal rules – the guidelines on deciding how to spend taxpayers’ money – set out in the October Budget as “non-negotiable”.
She claimed people will be on average £500 a year better off from 2029 and the economy will be 0.2% larger in 2029-30.
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Food security
Responding to the statement, NFU president Tom Bradshaw reiterated the importance of food security.
“I agree with the Chancellor, our world is changing, and we are facing an increasingly insecure global stage. Safeguarding our food security is an essential part of the nation’s ability to remain resilient to international shocks.
“The government’s own manifesto said food security is national security. But the policies announced since the election have only delivered blow after blow to farmers and growers’ confidence which is now at an all-time low, with investment plummeting.
“We want to work with the government to deliver the foundations for food security, economic growth and environmental delivery and we have the blueprints to support this. We will continue to make the case for investment ahead of the comprehensive spending review.”
Housebuilding targets
Meanwhile, the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) president Victoria Vyvyan commented on planning reforms.
The chancellor quoted the OBR in saying the government’s “landmark planning reforms will result in UK housebuilding reaching its highest level in over 40 years, bringing the UK one step closer to its Plan for Change mission to build 1.5 million homes”.
President Vyvyan said that while more housing is very much needed, the government’s plans to remove all market value from compulsory purchases is “tantamount to asking farmers to bear the cost of fixing a housing crisis they didn’t cause”.
She added: “Many CLA members would willingly put forward land for affordable housing development were it not for the expensive, slow and bureaucratic planning system. Overhauling the system must be an urgent priority for the government to unlock economic growth.
“We back the building of a small number of homes in a large number of villages to support sustainable and thriving rural communities, and this must not be overlooked in the drive to build 1.5 million homes in this Parliament.”
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