Jobs are vanishing, investment is drying up and confidence has plunged.
Today’s employment data confirms it. Job vacancies have fallen by 63,000 since March. Unemployment is at a four-year high.
That’s down to the Chancellor. Reeves said she wanted more people in jobs, then made it more expensive for firms to hire anyone from April.
It’s hardly surprising. She’s been wreaking havoc since the election.
Here are seven ways the Chancellor has torched growth.
1. Talked the UK down. The economy was starting to recover when Labour took over but Reeves killed the positive vibes by droning on and on about the “£22billion black hole” she inherited from the Tories, destroying confidence and getting on everybody’s nerves.
Every time she opened her mouth, the recovery died a little more. Now it’s finished.
2. Spread fear and panic. Next, she made things worse by panicking everyone over the “difficult” Budget to come. She let rumours and speculation run wild for four long months. Terrified consumers stopped buying, businesses froze projects, fear spread.
The economy was on life-support by the time she delivered her speech on October 31. Afterwards, it flatlined.
3. Unleashed her horror Budget. Her £25billion raid on employers’ national insurance bills was a hammer blow to job creation. Businesses warned her it would cost jobs but Reeves didn’t listen. Today, we’ve seen the results.
In total, Reeves hiked taxes by £40billion, and borrowed another £30billion. Slapping inheritance tax on family businesses will destroy thousands of firms.
And she still couldn’t make the books balance.
4. Drove the wealthy away. Reeves doubled down on the Tory raid on so-called non-doms, refusing to listen to arguments that it would backfire horribly.
Last year, the UK lost 10,000 millionaires, along with their money, jobs and tax receipts.
These are people who create opportunity. Now they’re doing it elsewhere. And ordinary taxpayers will have to cover the shortfall.
Worse, many overseas entrepreneurs who would have set up here won’t come, because they know what’s in store for them.
5. Loaded us with even more debt. As growth slows and spending soars, so does the national debt. We spend £9billion a month just servicing the interest, as UK borrowing costs rebound to Liz Truss levels.
That’s money that could have gone on tax cuts, better services, defending the realm. Instead, it’s just being thrown away.
6. Caved into the unions. Reeves has also given in to every public sector pay demand going. Without asking for any productivity improvements in return.
Just more billions down the drain. There’s a reason the unions give Labour so much money. They want it back.
7. Lost control of spending. The Chancellor’s hamfisted attempts to cut spending by scrapping the winter fuel payment and tightening up disability assessments have backfired.
Now, PM Keir Starmer is undoing everything, costing billions. Next, he will scrap the two child benefit cap, which will cost us £3.5billion more. And require more tax hikes this autumn.
Yes, Reeves inherited a mess after 14 years of Tory misrule. But she’s only made everything worse.
The Bank of England, Office for Budget Responsibility and IMF have all halved UK growth forecasts on her watch.
Growth doesn’t come from tax raids, anti-business rhetoric and botched reforms. It comes from encouraging hard work, enterprise and risk-taking.
Labour doesn’t get that. It never has.
So while Reeves bangs on about unlocking Britain’s potential, the country gets poorer, jobs disappear and the cost-of-living crisis rolls on.
Reeves destroys all she touches. What will she nuke next?