Tory shadow minister Chris Philp, who is branded the ‘architect’ of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget, is facing fury after saying Britain needs a better ‘work ethic’
Chris Philp says that Brits need better work ethic
A Tory shadow minister – and “architect” of Liz Truss’s mini-budget – is facing fury after saying Britain needs a better “work ethic”.
Labour has accused the Conservatives of showing “some real brass neck” after Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp made the comment on a podcast. Keir Starmer’s party accused the senior Tory MP of telling the public it was “all their fault” that they were worse off and failing to take responsibility of mistakes made by his party.
Labour branded Mr Philp, who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury in Ms Truss’s government, the “architect” of her disastrous 2022 mini-budget, which crashed the economy and sent mortgages spiralling. The Lib Dems also responded with anger at Mr Philp’s comment and said the Tories could do with some “more humility after trashing the economy”.
The row erupted after Mr Philp appeared on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast. Asked whether he thought Britain was missing “a belief in hard work”, he told BBC presenter Nick Robison “I do a bit”, adding that “we need a work ethic” to compete with other countries around the world.
He said: “There are nine million working age adults who are not working, and as we compete globally with countries like South Korea, China, India. We need a work ethic, we need everybody to be making a contribution. We are in a global race and that means we’ve got to be competitive and it means we’ve got to work hard. And I think as a country we need to lift our game, we need to up our game.”
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Figures published this month showed 9.3 million people were economically inactive between September and November last year, down slightly on the year before but still 670,000 more than before the pandemic. However, around a quarter of those are economically inactive because they are students and another 30% have a long-term illness.
A Labour spokesman said: “Chris Philp was the architect of the Liz Truss Budget which crashed the economy and sent family mortgages rocketing. After the Conservatives’ economic failure left working people worse off, it takes some real brass neck for the Tory top team to tell the public that it’s really all their fault. It’s the same old Tories. They haven’t changed and they’ve learned nothing.”
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper said: “No-one can doubt Chris Philp’s work ethic after he crashed the economy in just 39 days as Treasury minister under Liz Truss. He also treated himself to a £5,000 taxpayer–funded handout after finally resigning from Boris Johnson ’s government.
“The British public will no doubt take his advice with a bucketload of salt. The Conservatives could do with showing a bit more humility after trashing the economy and leaving the NHS on its knees.”