Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves told the Sunday Mirror it would be “great” if rumours came true of Rishi Sunak finally calling a general election in a bid to distract from a drubbing, saying: “We’re ready. I think the country are more than ready.”
Labour are “fighting for every vote” in Thursday’s local elections, Rachel Reeves said last night as the Tories braced for a bruising set of results.
The Shadow chancellor blasted the Tories for failing to deliver on the promise of “levelling up” – as it can be revealed they blew £1.1 million boasting about the policy in ads in just a matter of months.
She told the Sunday Mirror it would be “great” if rumours came true of Rishi Sunak finally calling a general election in a bid to distract from a drubbing, saying: “We’re ready. I think the country are more than ready.”
She added: “Rishi Sunak is running scared of the voters. People want change, you can’t hide from the voters forever.”
Ms Reeves has been campaigning in the North East of England this week ahead of Thursday’s local polls – and met working families continuing to struggle with the cost of living.
“There’s a feeling that things are going backwards,” she said.
“If you listened to Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt you’d think the economy had turned a corner. That their plan is working. You’d think people had never had it so good.”
Labour this week revealed analysis showing the government’s tax cuts had already been swallowed up by inflation.
The government says the typical worker would be £900 better off a year – but Labour’s analysis found costs for working households are £7,800 higher each year to due to rising inflation than they were in 2020.
“I met a mum and dad with a four-month old,” she said.
“He’s doing an apprenticeship in manfuacturing and she works in a supermarket but is on maternity leave at the moment. And she said something that struck me – she said “We’re getting by, but every evening we’re talking about money, because there’s just not enough.””
Another woman, she said, told her: “We’re existing, but not much more than that”.
“The promise of ‘Levelling Up’ just hasn’t happened,” Ms Reeves said.
Labour sources last night bid to manage expectations ahead of Thursday’s local elections – with insiders saying they don’t expect to win either of the Tory-held mayoral elections in the West Midlands or Tees Valley, despite promising polls.
“We’re working really hard for every vote,” Ms Reeves said. “We’ve got great candidates in Chris McEwan in Tees Valley and Richard Parker in the West Midlands. They’d be fantastic mayors, but the truth is they are fighting against, people who are distancing themselves from the Conservative Party.
“Tees Valley would take a 23% swing to Labour to get that, so that’s a tall ask. But we’re fighting for everything in these elections next Thursday.”
She added: “There’s absolutely no complacency in Labour. The polls are the polls, but local elections don’t tend to follow national polls.”
But she was more optimistic about Labour’s chances in the Blackpool South by-election, to be held the same day.
She said: “We’ve got a fantastic candidate there, Chris Webb, working it really hard. And we’re hoping that’s another red wall seat that comes back to Labour.”