The PM is the architect of his own misfortunes. But he’s had a little help.
Can’t blame Keir Starmer for everything – Chancellor Rachel Reeves is a disaster too (Image: Getty)
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has done her bit to sink Sir Keir Starmer. The country turned on Labour the instant she scrapped the winter fuel payment, just weeks after the 2024 election. Activists knocking on doors in last week’s local elections said winter fuel is still the number one issue raised by furious voters. Ever since that early blunder, Reeves has continued to wreak havoc. After repeatedly promising not to raise taxes on “working people”, she’s hit us for almost £70 billion, smashing workers, farmers, pubs, small business owners, pensioners, savers, investors and many more, while letting the welfare bill spiral out of control.
Her £26billion jobs tax alone has destroyed hundreds of thousands of livelihoods. The response was entirely predictable. Faced with even higher National Insurance bills, businesses either stopped hiring workers. laid off existing ones or went bust under the strain. Two hefty minimum wage hikes, combined with Angela Rayner’s union-friendly Employment Rights Bill, have made it too expensive and too risky to take on staff, especially younger workers or anyone with health problems.
The result? Unemployment has surged. The latest figures are out today, and they’re horrible. Reeves has engineered a political, economic and social disaster.
Wage growth has been sluggish for years, but by and large, if you wanted a job, you could get one. We used to laugh at countries such as France, where rigid labour laws made employers terrified of hiring because they feared they’d never be able to get rid of bad staff.
Reeves and Rayner have imported the same model here, with exactly the same consequences. Youth unemployment now stands at 16%, higher than the EU average. For years, we were comfortably below it.
This was a needless, ideological act of self-harm. Supposedly designed to protect lower-paid workers, it’s done exactly the opposite. When Labour won the 2024 election, the unemployment rate stood at 4.1%. In February, it was 4.9%. The Bank of England has warned it could hit 5.6% this year.
The Iran war and oil price spike will obviously play a part in that, but the trend was started by Reeves. Today we’ve had fresh confirmation of the disaster.
Britain is expected to lose 163,000 jobs this year, according to a new report. Taxes on workers are rising faster in Britain than in any other OECD member state. Employers can’t afford to hire. Reeves and Rayner have created havoc. And let’s not forget Ed Miliband.
His headlong net zero crusade is also to blame, as energy bills soar. Two of the UK’s poorest regions, South Wales and the Humber, face the worst job losses as soaring energy costs hammer manufacturing and construction.
Within weeks of Labour taking office, I called Reeves, Rayner and Miliband Britain’s economic suicide squad. Their work is now nearing completion. No wonder the country has turned against the man supposedly in charge of this circus.
Starmer looks finished. But replacing him will achieve nothing unless these three are shown the door too. Instead, there’s a distinct possibility that either Rayner or Miliband could end up in No 10. If that happens, today’s havoc will only be a taste of the nightmare to come.