UK in a ‘doom loop’ under Tories, Labour MP claims
Shadow financial secretary to the Treasury James Murray said public services across the country were ‘on their knees’.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has broken his promise to grow the economy and Tory policies have left the UK in a “doom loop”, Labour’s shadow financial secretary to the Treasury has claimed.
James Murray said public services across the country were “on their knees” despite the tax burden being “on course to be the highest in 70 years”.
Speaking at a fringe event at the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow, Mr Murray said the economy had “grown so poorly over the last 14 years” while the Tories have been in power that “not only are people worse off, not only is the tax burden on course to be the highest in 70 years, but public services are on their knees”.
He said: “How do we get out of the doom loop the Conservatives have put us into?”
Mr Murray told the event, organised by Labour Friends of Scotland: “From our point of view the answer to that has to be getting the economy growing.”
Labour’s shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has put the party’s “mission to get the economy growing again” at the “front and centre of everything we want to do”, he added.
And he said that with the UK having officially entered recession this week, Mr Sunak had broken his promise to the country to grow the economy.
That had been one of five key pledges Mr Sunak had made to voters when he entered Downing Street, saying that people should “hold my government and I to account on delivering those goals”.
Mr Murray said failure to deliver on his pledge on the economy meant the PM’s leadership was “shattered”.
The Labour MP for Ealing North said: “This is Rishi Sunak whose number one promise was to get the economy growing.
“We’re now in a situation where the economy is smaller now than when he went into Number 10 Downing Street. The economy has got smaller since he was Prime Minister.
“After this week we can very legitimately say his promise to grow the economy has been broken.
“But more than that, the whole centrepiece of his leadership has been shattered, he has nothing to stand on.”