Tories attempt to banish the ghost of Liz Truss-era turmoil

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride will attempt to draw a line under the turmoil unleashed by Liz Truss’s 2022 mini-Budget in a major speech this morning.

Sir Keir Starmer hammers the Conservatives for the legacy of the chaos on Ms Truss’s watch, which is widely blamed for painful hikes in interest rates. Mr Stride will attempt to win back the trust of voters on the economy as the Tories fight to escape their third-place position in many polls.

He will acknowledge the damage to the economy and the party’s reputation, saying: “For a few weeks, we put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected. The credibility of the UK’s economic framework was undermined by spending billions on subsidising energy bills, and tax cuts, with no proper plan for how this would be paid for.”

Mr Stride will acknowledge “damage to our credibility” is not “easily undone,” adding: “That will take time. And it also requires contrition.”

Insisting that the upheavals of the past will not return, he will say: “So let me be clear: Never again will the Conservative Party undermine fiscal credibility by making promises we cannot afford.”

Mr Stride will argue the 2022 crisis was “in part born of exasperation with the failure of successive governments to put us on a path back to sustained growth and rising living standards”.

“Many feel that the system only works for the benefit of others, for large corporations, or people from other countries, but not for them and their families,” he will say. “We must accept that for too long governments of both colours have failed to free us from this malaise.

“For our party to find a path back to regaining trust, we must show that we are serious about listening to people and creating a better future underpinned by a credible plan.”

The Shadow Chancellor will also use his speech to fire a shot at Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, declaring: “Their economic prescription is pure populism. It doubles down on the ‘magic money tree’ we thought had been banished with Jeremy Corbyn.

“They would plough ahead with huge additional welfare spending, as well as tax cuts, with no plan for how to pay for any of it. We must be radical in our prospectus, but that must be grounded in the principles of stability and responsibility.”

Looking ahead to next week’s spending review, he state: “By borrowing hundreds of billions more than the plans she inherited and pushing up the rates we pay on that borrowing, Rachel Reeves has added nearly £80bn to our expected debt interest bill over the course of this parliament. At the spending review next week, we can expect her to trumpet all of the additional projects and programmes she is funding – without mentioning the fact it is all being paid for from borrowing.”

Adamant there is still a role for the Tories, he will say: “When other parties are descending into a race to the bottom on economic credibility and responsibility, the Conservative Party is needed now perhaps more than ever. But to win that fight we will need thoughtfulness.

“We will need to take our time if we are to forge a credible plan that delivers for the people of our country. Over the next four years our party will do just that.”

Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice rejected Mr Stride's criticism, saying: “We’ll take no lectures on economics from a party that more than doubled the national debt, raised taxes and government spending to 70-year highs and shrank economic growth to 70-year lows... They can never be trusted again.”