'REEVES DEBT' WOULD FUND 300,000 NURSES

THE CHAOS unleashed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves will cost Britain the equivalent of the 350,000 police constables' salaries or 300,000 nurses, according to scathing analysis.

- David Williamson

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride warned that market turmoil amid the backlash to her first Budget will have pushed up borrowing costs by £12billion — enough to pay pensioners' winter fuel payments for eight-and-a-half years or to fund the entire judicial system. Mr Stride said: "The Chancellor's economic mess means our taxes are being wasted on more and more debt interest. It’s a crisis made in Downing Street.

“Rachel Reeves needs to stop burying her head in the sand and urgently change course.

“We’re in a very, very difficult economic situation, almost entirely of this Government’s making.”

He fears Labour’s decision to hit employers with higher national insurance contributions will lead to steeper prices, increasing inflation and interest rates failing to fall.

Inevitably, “people will pay more on their mortgages”.

Mr Stride accused Ms Reeves of “destroying growth” and said the country “should never, ever have got into this situation in the first place”.

The former Work and Pensions Secretary says the Government could have avoided tax rises if it had “pursued sensible welfare reform” but claimed it is “simply running away from the whole issue”.

He added: “There are people in their party who really don’t want to touch it – they are quite happy with the way it is.

“Well, as a Conservative, I’m sorry, I’m not happy with the way it is. We need a system that is fiscally sustainable.”