Labour has not been straight with the British people

SIR KEIR Starmer and Rachel Reeves have driven the British economy off a cliff. They took us from the top of the G7 growth league right down to the relegation zone.

- Mel Stride

And it's working people that are paying the price.

They blame everyone but them- selves, but the facts tell another story. In just six short months, they have raised taxes to record levels, punished small businesses, seen inflation rise, sent borrowing costs to a 27-year high and destroyed jobs. They have picked people's pockets in the service of paying off their trade union paymasters and swelling the size of the state.

If over the past 14 years we forgot what the Labour Party is about then Starmer has given us all a ghastly reminder.

Growth, spending and borrow- ing are going in the wrong direc- tion. The UK's economic reputa- tion is in tatters.

The Conservatives did not get everything right in our years in power and it's important we recog- nise that while we rebuild trust with the British people.

But we were always guided by the key principle that work should always pay and businesses are the engine of growth - they are our economic future. Something sorely missing from this Government.