Full exchange: Keir Starmer accuses Liz Truss of being ‘lost in denial’ over market turmoil
Sir Keir Starmer has accused Liz Truss of being “lost in denial”, as the prime minister claimed to have “protected” the UK economy.
The Labour leader said: “There is no point trying to hide it, everyone can see what has happened. The Tories went on a borrowing spree, sending mortgages rates through the roof … [Homeowners] won’t forget and they won’t forgive. Nor should they.”
The prime minister faced the Commons for the first time since her chancellor’s mini-budget was blamed for unleashing commotion in the markets and sending the pound into freefall.
Ms Truss was forced to defend the credibility of her economic plan, which is focused on borrowing money to fund growth-boosting measures – a vision now overshadowed by Kwasi Kwarteng’s U-turn over plans to scrap the top rate of tax.
But Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, warned the UK was “a big step closer to a recession”, which may not end until late next year at the earliest.
He added: “We look for a 0.5 per cent quarter-on-quarter drop in GDP in the fourth quarter, building on a similar decline in the third quarter, and a 1.5 per cent year-over-year decline in 2023 as a whole.”
