Andrew Bailey delivered a huge blow to Rachel Reeves (Image: Getty)
Rachel Reeves received a humiliating blow from the Bank of England this morning after it slashed Britain’s forecast growth rate this year.
Despite pledging to achieve economic growth at any cost, Labour is now on course to see a meagre 0.75% expansion of the economy in 2025.
This is half that originally predicted by the Bank of England last year, suggesting her Budget alongside global events have undermined a key plank of government policy.
While the 0.25% cut to will be a slight relief for the beleaguered Chancellor, voters have also been warned to expect big increases in both energy and water bills this year, which will push up inflation “quite sharply”.
Ms Reeves has said she is “not satisfied” with the growth projects from the Bank.
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Andrew Bailey blew up Labour’s key economic policy (Image: Getty)
She insisted: “Our promise in our Plan for Change is to go further and faster to kickstart economic growth to put more money in working people’s pockets.”
However the announcement piles even more pressure on Ms Reeves, coming hours after the Daily Express revealed is mulling sacking her as Chancellor.
Labour insiders revealed that an “active process is going on” as the PM considers how and when to execute a reshuffle, earmarked for the Spring.
A Whitehall source said: “Keir needs to shake things up and there is an active process going on to consider all the options.”
They added: “There is no doubt that the first six months have been pretty rough and the poll ratings show that. Something needs to change.”
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Sources suggest Starmer is now looking at sacking Reeves (Image: Getty)
Announcing the cut to their growth forecast, Governor Andrew Bailey said: “We’ll be monitoring the UK economy and global developments very closely and taking a gradual and careful approach to reducing rates further.”
The Bank said that while Rachel Reeves’ increase in public spending helped growth, this was undermined by the National Insurance hike which is threatening to increase unemployment.
Andrew Bailey added that US tariffs and a potential trade war would also have a big impact.
The governor said: “If there were to be tariffs that contributed to a fragmentation of the world economy, that would be negative for growth for the world economy. I hope that doesn’t happen, but that could happen.”
“The impacts on inflation are much more ambiguous.
“It depends on the reaction of other countries to the tariffs, whether that leads to a redirection of trade and what impact that has on exchange rates.
“You can’t have a clear and unambiguous forecast of what it means for inflation, but we will of course follow it very carefully.”
Responding to the Bank’s announcements, Tory shadow chancellor Mel Stride said the cut was “welcome news”.
However he blasted: “But the Bank of England say growth is weaker than expected, confidence is falling and Labour’s Budget is fuelling inflation.”
The LibDems agreed, saying the cut to growth expectations must be a “wake up call” for Rachel Reeves.
Treasury spokesman warned: “Rachel Reeves needs to see sense, scrap her national insurance rise, which is hammering small businesses, and jettison her short-sighted red lines on a Customs Union. Only then will we see an end to these putrid growth figures.”