'Call me the Iron Chancellor if you want,' says Rachel Reeves as she hits back at critics in City and Commons
Rachel Reeves hit back at her critics in the City and Parliament saying: “I’m happy to be the Iron Chancellor if that’s what you want to call me.”
Ms Reeves insisted she is “here for the long haul” at the helm of the Treasury as Britain has been buffeted by an economic storm and her Budget has faced heavy criticism, with accusations that it has hit growth.
In a fresh blow to the Government’s dash for economic growth, UK retail sales unexpectedly declined last month during the all-important festive shopping season, new official figures show.
The volume of retail sales fell by 0.3% in December, the Office for National Statistics said.
.Analysts had been expecting sales to rise by 0.4% in December, with shoppers stocking up ahead of Christmas but food purchases fell to their lowest level since 2013, with supermarkets particularly affected.
The Pound at 8am was 1.2175 dollars compared to 1.2242 Dollars at the previous close, having strenghtened slightly on Thursday.
The Tories had suggested Labour Chancellor Ms Reeves could be removed from the post after her controversial Budget, the Pound dropping and the cost of Government borrowing rising to record highs going back nearly three decades for long-term gilts.
But Ms Reeves, who has the full backing of Sir Keir Starmer, insisted her decisions were correct and said they had been made in the national interest to put public finances back on “a firm footing”.
Her job, she told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, required “steely determination”.
“I’m happy to be the Iron Chancellor if that’s what you want to call me,” she added, in a nod to Margaret Thatcher, whose uncompromising style as PM earned her the nickname the “Iron Lady”.
She brushed off comparisons with short-live premier Liz Truss, whose mini-budget spooked the financial markets in 2022 and led to a spike in mortgage rates.
Asked about comparisons with Ms Truss, who left office after 49 days, Ms Reeves added: “I’m here for the long haul.”
Elsewhere, Ms Reeves insisted she had not taken criticism of her decisions personally.
She added: “Some people don’t want me to succeed. Some people don’t want this Government to succeed.
“I’m not going to let them stop me from doing what this Government has got a mandate to do, and that is to grow the economy, to make working people better off.”
However, latest figures show the economy is flatlining, with claims from business chiefs and the Tories that her Budget, with its £25 billion hike in National Insurance for employers, had hit growth.
She has defended her Budget of £40 billion of tax rises, some £30 billion more borrowing, as needed to repair Britain’s broken public services, with £70 billion more public spending including on the NHS.
