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Sir Keir Starmer is reportedly gearing up to blame Nigel Farage and Brexit for Britain’s expected downturn in productivity at the budget, as part of a new attack on the Reform UK leader.
Treasury officials are bracing for the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to lower its forecasts for productivity growth, a downgrade that is expected create an extra shortfall of around £20bn at November’s budget. The shortfall is expected to be filled by a swathe of tax rises.
But sources told The Times Sir Keir and Rachel Reeves are planning to argue that this downgrade would not have happened were it not for Brexit, pinning the blame on the Reform leader for leading the campaign to take Britain out of the EU.
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Sir Keir Starmer has ramped up attacks on Reform UK (PA Wire)
It comes after theThe Independent revealed that Brexit has cost UK business £37bn a year as a result of a 5 per cent drop in trade with the bloc.
While the government has gone some way to remedy the drag on trade, signing a fresh cooperation agreement with the bloc earlier this year, there are fears it still won’t go far enough to offset the barriers caused by the UK’s exit from the EU.
Sir Keir has previously accused Mr Farage of “fantasy” economics, comparing him to former Tory PM Liz Truss and claiming his tax cut pledges would “crash the economy”.
But the prime minister has been ramping up his attacks on Mr Farage in recent weeks, using the Labour conference to claim his party is in “a fight for the soul of the country” with Reform UK, hitting back against the “lies and division” of the right-wing party’s populism.
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Nigel Farage’s Reform UK have been surging in the polls (PA Wire)
In an impassioned 54-minute speech at the party’s conference in Liverpool on Tuesday the prime minister pledged to defend British flags from the far right after a summer in which they became the focus of culture wars.
Claiming Mr Farage “doesn’t like Britain”, the prime minister insisted that Labour is the “patriotic party” and used his address to set out his vision for a “land of dignity and respect”.
He warned that the politics of Mr Farage and Reform, which he said would threaten the livelihoods of thousands of legal migrants, was “racist” and said anyone who argues that people who have lived here for generations should now be deported is “an enemy of national renewal”.
The PM’s new line of attack, expected to come at the Budget, is likely to come alongside a series of further difficult choices for the government.
There is a growing expectation that the Treasury will have to increase taxes by as much as £30bn in the upcoming Budget, as a result of sluggish productivity, government U-turns and higher than expected interest payments.
Ms Reeves is facing increasing pressure to rescue the UK’s troubled finances in the Budget, but the government has repeatedly said it will not increase the rates of VAT, income tax or national insurance at the Budget in November.
Downing Street has been contacted for comment.