Before parliament reconvenes next week, the prime minister will give a much-maligned speech in Downing Street gardens. He will accept the current state of the public finances but promise to “do the hard work needed to root out 14 years of rot” while continuing to lay blame at the feet of the previous Conservative administration.
Furthermore, he will assert that, with Labour in power, his administration would not carry on with “business as usual,” declaring that there will be “no more politics of performance, papering over the cracks, or division and distraction.”
Richard Fuller, the head of the Conservative Party, countered that it would be “nothing but a performative speech to distract the public from the promises Starmer made that he never had any intention of keeping”.
Since coming into power over eight weeks ago, the government has repeatedly asserted that the Tories have left a £22 billion “black hole” in the Treasury, with even reserve monies of £9 billion having been “more than three times over” spent.
Even if recent growth has exceeded forecasts, public borrowing is at an all-time high, and inflation increased in August.
