A senior Conservative has expressed concern about the state of the economy his party “might inherit” following a future general election.
Andrew Griffith, the shadow business secretary, said he is “not surprised” that inflation has risen once again and pointed to data that suggests a slowdown in hiring activity.
Inflation climbed to an annual rate of 2.6 per cent last month, rising further above the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target, the Official for National Statistics (ONS) announced on Wednesday morning.
Griffith told Sky News: “My real worry is that every day, the contours of the damage being done to our economy are being revealed.
“If this were a plane and there were so many dials in the red, you’d be looking for a parachute.”
Pressed on the Conservative Party’s record on the economy in government, Griffith pointed to the fact that inflation fell during Rishi Sunak’s tenure as prime minister.
“I’m not saying we got everything right”, he said. “But what are we going to do now? And what we are here to do is represent people in Britain who are worried about their bills.”
Griffith went on to say that he is “genuinely really worried for the economy” and that he is “worried about the economy that [the Conservatives] might one day inherit”.
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Asked whether the UK could be heading for recession, Griffith said: “I feel we may already be in recession, actually.”
He added that a lot of capital is flowing into the US due to their “optimistic agenda and their desire to reform government”, but “we don’t see any of that here”.
He said: “I honestly think Rachel Reeves is leading the economy in the wrong direction. We’re not going to have another election anytime soon, so it’s really important that they change course.”
In further comments, Griffith contended that the Labour government’s decision not to compensate women affected by changes to their retirement age is “corrosive for trust in democracy”.
On Tuesday, work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall issued an apology for a 28-month delay in sending out letters to those born in the 1950s impacted by state pension changes. However, she said she doesn’t accept that compensation should be paid.
Reflecting again on the Conservative Party’s record in government, Griffith told Sky News: “We received the report, and sadly, we weren’t in office long enough to consider the consequences of that. The big issue about Waspi is the betrayal of voters.
“I didn’t queue up as so many Labour cabinet ministers did, talking about how they were going to right the injustice, pledging to support the Waspi women, get elected on a false prospectus and then come in and do something different.”
He said that there is a “pattern” of Labour “saying one thing to get into office and then doing something different”. He added that this is “very corrosive for trust in democracy”.
Griffith was also asked whether Reform UK should be taking money from Elon Musk.
He replied that Musk has businesses in the UK, so he “suspects” that a donation is “probably legitimate”.
But he went on to say that if Musk cares about freedom of speech, he should “look at the Conservative Party”, and Kemi Badenoch’s record on “the gender agenda” and “protecting children” — as well as stopping Reform leader Nigel Farage being “de-banked”.
Griffith added: “So there’s only one real official opposition policy in the UK. There’s only one party that’s daily taking the fight to this socialist government, and that’s the Conservatives.”
Josh Self is Editor of Politics.co.uk, follow him on Bluesky here.
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