A Treasury minister has been accused of blaming the UK’s economic gloom on Donald Trump.
GB News host Camilla Tominey slammed Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, for rising unemployment, inflation and falling growth.
Ms Tominey said the economic chaos is “of the Government’s own making”.
But Mr Jones linked the 0.3% fall in GDP, revealed by statisticians on Thursday, to Donald Trump’s trade tariffs.
GB News presenter Camilla Tominey raged: “Rachel Reeves gave the Spending Review on Wednesday. On Thursday, we found out that the UK economy shrank by 0.3%.
“That was 0.2% higher than most economists expected. This is as a result of her budget and awful April, isn’t it?
“This is of the Government’s own making, the fact that the economy is now shrinking?”
Mr Jones responded: “Well look, the data that came out was one month, which was April. That was the particular month when Donald Trump first announced his global tariffs, before we had the UK/US trade deal, before we had the UK/India trade deal, and the UK/EU trade deal.
“So it’s no surprise that in that month the market was suppressed and not knowing what was going to happen in that context around the World.
“But if you look back at the last quarter, we’ve been the fastest growing economy in the G7. Whilst April is a blip for very good reason, we’re still very confident we are doing the right thing to be able to get our strong economy growing as quickly as possible.”
Ms Tominey hit back: “You can’t possibly be blaming Donald Trump for the fact that services output is down, production output is down, payroll jobs are down, 274,000 from a year ago, the unemployment rate is up, inflation is up.
“You can’t possibly be blaming Donald Trump. At least take some responsibility for what has happened to the economy since a Budget was announced that imposed a jobs tax on people, via a £25bn increase in national insurance contributions.
“It’s not got anything to do with America”.
Mr Jones insisted: “The reason I reference Donald Trump is that it is that particular, April, where there was this great uncertainty in global markets and it had an impact on businesses and investors. That has begun to be clarified.
“We’re the first country to have got a trade deal with the US. We’re still the only country to have a trade deal with the United States.
“In our spending review, we’ve been able to show what we’re doing, investing in infrastructure and skills and doing all the things that we can to partner with business and make sure the economy is growing.”
Business leaders blamed the Chancellor’s decision to increase National Insurance contributions as well as Donald Trump’s tariffs, after the Office for National Statistics reported the economy contracted by 0.3% in April.
The figures came one day after Ms Reeves boasted of “fixing the foundations of our economy” and embarked on a £300 billion spending spree in her Spending Review.
Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride blasted: “So, what we need is a completely different economy and we will put together what that will look like in the run up to the next general election.
“We have plenty of time to do that. But can I just make a general point which is that we should have a much stronger economy to lean into the kind of challenges that we’re discussing this morning.
“We haven’t got that because this government took the wrong choices. In coming into office it loaded up taxes on businesses, that has destroyed growth, and in part been passed on by higher prices, as has taxing, and borrowing and spending vast amounts of money.
“That just kept inflation higher for longer, interest rates higher for longer and then, in terms of national debt that they’re adding to, of course the servicing costs on that.
They’re now running at about £100bn a year, which is twice what we spend on defence.”