Shadow Justice Secretary claims the UK is falling behind countries it was once ahead of (Image: BBC)
Conservative shadow justice minister Dr Kieran Mullan hits out at Labour’s “desperate” attempts to implement growth during tonight’s . Speaking of Rachel Reeves’ plans for economic growth announced on Wednesday, Dr Mullan claimed her ideas are not new.
The Tory MP said: “Yesterday was pretty desperate stuff from the Labour Party. They announced what they said was a whole new set of projects all designed to implement growth. Yet it turned out they weren’t new, and they weren’t the Labour Party’s ideas.”
host Fiona Bruce then asked: “They were your ideas?”
Before the Conservative shadow minister was able to respond, she quickly added, “Why didn’t you do them then?”
Answering Ms Bruce, Dr Mullan defensively said: “Some of them are in fact completing this year, that we started. So some of the infrastructure projects are things that we started and funded.”
Rachel Reeves’ new plans for growth include airport expansions (Image: Getty)
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On Thursday, January 30, Fiona Bruce hosted the programme in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire where she discussed the UK’s most pressing political topics with politicians and journalists.
The presenter was accompanied by a five-person panel featuring Labour’s Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury James Murray, Conservative Shadow Justice Minister Kieran Mullan, Lib Dem Health and Social Care Spokesperson Helen Morgan, Chairman of Reform UK Zia Yusuf, and former editor of the Daily Mirror Alison Phillips.
Moving onto Rachel Reeves’ newly announced expansion plans, Dr Mullan said: “The problem with growth at the moment is that it’s not a long-term problem; it’s a short-term problem. They inherited an economy from us that’s the fastest growing economy in the G7 and across our time in Government from 2010, we were one of the fastest growing economies, and they’ve turned that into an absolute hardstop.”
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He added: “Now, countries we were previously ahead of, we’re now falling behind. So Labour are desperate to find reasons to get that going. They’re desperate to get growth.”
“Whilst we’re kind of debating heavily on one runway, China is in the middle of building 20 new airports. So we’ve got to recognise this is a global issue. While we have a role to play, I don’t want to see the UK fall further behind on the back of an overzealous attempt to meet these targets that we’re already doing reasonably well on.”
On Wednesday, the Chancellor set out a fresh plan to get the UK’s economy growing by announcing airport expansions.
During a speech in Oxford, Ms Reeves said a third runway will “unlock further growth, boost investment, increase exports and make the UK more open and more connected.”
The Chancellor also backed expansions at Luton and Gatwick airports, as well as a “growth corridor” between Oxford and Cambridge, which she claimed could be “Europe’s Silicon Valley”.