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KEIR STARMER IS JOINTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE UK’S ECONOMIC WOES, SAYS KWASI KWARTENG

SIR Keir Starmer is responsible for the UK’s current economic woes as her budget decisions were sanctioned by him, according to former Conservative Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng.

Speaking to Camilla Tominey on GB News, he said: ”I was sacked, let’s be clear about it, but then the problem with that was that the actual policy is something that’s often directed, generally directed by Number 10…

“That’s the problem facing Sir Keir because if he gets rid of Rachel Reeves, he was the one who said we were going to be the fastest growing country in the G7, he’s the person who’s been at the head of the government, and he’s been saying, ‘look, we’re going to grow the economy’.

“The idea that whatever she was doing wasn’t totally sanctioned by him, is for the birds of course.

“They knew what was going to be in the budget. They both wanted to tax businesses. They both made the pledge not to tax working people, and we got into this absurd situation where farmers and small business owners were paying inheritance tax and they were raising taxes on corporations.”

Asked why the Tories are not calling for Reeves to resign, he said: “Whenever [Labour] they said, ‘oh, so and so must resign’, that just meant, certainly in the Boris days, and I think with Rishi as well, the Prime Minister supported them more,

“Because if you say such and such minister should resign and they leave, that’s a win for the opposition. And so Prime Minister, he’s more likely to back Rachel if we start calling for her resignation. That’s just one of the weird things about politics.”

He said Labour is in a worse position than under Liz Truss: “We did too much too quickly, and I’ve said this repeatedly, and the markets were spooked, and it was a huge immediate reaction to what they perceived to be unfunded tax cuts.

“In this situation, I think it’s a worse situation, because there’s no easy way out.”

He added: “I think they’re going to kill growth. I think what Mel [Stride] said was 100% right, they’ve killed it stone dead. And the danger is that we’ll get into, we’ll be in a recession, God forbid.

“If that happens, their only recourse will be to raise taxes even more which will actually cause lower growth.”

On the UK’s economic prospects, he said: “As you asked me, will there be a recession or not? Everyone is asking that. Everybody in the city, everybody at home, will be asking – what’s the future of the economy?

“It’s not very clear at the moment. If at the end of the year we’ve had zero growth or God forbid, a recession, I think the whole government’s plan is bust.

“They’ll have to come back to the House of Commons and have a budget where they increase taxes even more, having said that they wouldn’t do that. And I think at that point the government’s over, frankly.”