Nigel Farage has torn into Rachel Reeves as he demands that she admit to voters they are getting poorer, not wealthier. Taking to his feet in the House of Commons after the Chancellor’s spring statement, the Reform UK leader pointed out that GDP growth is not relevant to his constituents’ lives.
He demanded that the Chancellor instead talk about GDP per capita, which measures economic output per person, rather than just GDP, which measures a country’s total economic output. Mr Farage asked Ms Reeves: “Would the Chancellor agree that measuring growth, a relative wealth, by GDP is not the most relevant number to our constituents? Because we’re living in an age of mass immigration and a rising population, it is GDP per capita, surely, that matters to our constituents – and that has fallen consistently for the last two years and is falling still.”
“Shouldn’t we tell people that actually they are getting poorer?”
Ms Reeves hit back that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast predicts that GDP per capita will increase by 5.6% over the course of this Parliament, having fallen under the previous government.
She lashed out: “If he ever gets to Clacton, he can tell his constituents that.”
The OBR forecasts that GDP per capita over the next couple of years will be 0.3% growth in 2025, 1.5% in 2026, 1.4% in 2027, 1.3% in 2028, and 1.4% in 2029.
The OBR’s report also says that net migration into Britain will fall from 728,000 in the year to mid-2024, before falling to 258,000 net in mid-2027.
However, it will then rise again to 340,000 net by about 2028.
It says: “This sharp fall in net migration over the forecast is consistent with the tightening of visa policies, mainly regarding dependants of students and care workers, and higher levels of emigration following recent high levels of immigration.”
It says the adult population of Britain will grow by 2.1million over the next five years, reaching 57.8million in 2029.
By 2029, the adult population will be 500,000 higher than in the OBR’s last forecast in October.
Responding to the spring statement, Reform UK deputy Richard Tice said: “Quite simply, this emergency budget is a disaster and was entirely avoidable, yet Labour decided to plough regardless. The OBR has forecast that tax as a share of the economy will hit a historic high within 3 years and halved the revised growth forecast for 2025 from 2% in the Autumn to 1% today.”
“Yet the OBR thinks that this Government will somehow pluck growth out of thin air in the coming years. The OBR are delusional.
“The economy is shrinking, growth is collapsing towards recession, energy bills soaring because of net zero, the cost of government borrowing soaring back to 15 year highs and the job market is collapsing. The reaction by the bond market should be a dire warning to us all.”
