The Conservative Shadow Chancellor was in full flow, noisily picking holes in the Spring Statement – when Speaker Lindsay Hoyle had to step in and admonish him
Spring statement: Sir Lindsay Hoyle calls out Mel Stride’s use of language
Tory Mel Stride got a telling off in the Commons after he used an ‘unparliamentary’ word in a furious rant about Rachel Reeves.
The Conservative Shadow Chancellor was in full flow, noisily picking holes in the Spring Statement.
He accused the Chancellor of having “fiddled fiscal targets” – branding her a “gambler”.
“She fiddled the targets and she missed them,” he said – prompting Speaker Lindsay Hoyle to intervene.
“I’m not sure about the language you’ve used,” Hoyle said. “I think there are better words and more constructive words the Shadow Chancellor would prefer to use.”
He later claimed the Spring Statement was, in fact, an “emergency budget” – to which Ms Reeves quipped back: “If this was a budget, then it would be the Leader of the Opposition ( Kemi Badenoch ) responding.
“Now, I’m glad that she’s still in her place. I know that she’ll want to get back to her office for a lunchtime steak soon.”
Earlier, in her speech, Ms Reeves acknowledged the economy will only grow by 1% this year – half the predicted rate – after all G7 countries had their growth figures downgraded.
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Against the backdrop of sluggish economic growth that she blamed on a volatile international environment but which critics say she is largely responsible for, Reeves unveiled measures intended to meet her self-imposed budget rules.
With growth in 2025 lower than anticipated, there’s a hole in the government’s revenue expectations, which Reeves has sought to fill with welfare cuts as well as measures to rein in tax avoidance and tax evasion, and by lowering the day-to-day costs of running government.