He warned Nigel Farage’s policies would be “extremely dangerous and very damaging to our economy.”
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride has slammed Reform’s “fantasy economics”(Image: Getty Images)
Shadow Chancellor Sir Mel Stride has said the Conservatives must “shine the light of truth on Reform and expose the fantasy economics that they peddle.”
Speaking this week, he warned Nigel Farage’s policies would be “extremely dangerous and very damaging to our economy.”
He added: “Our role is to shine the light of truth on Reform and expose the fantasy economics that they peddle, the ideas that don’t add up; that sound great, but don’t add up.
Read more: Keir Starmer breaks silence on claims income tax will be raised at November Budget
“You could start by saying they deal in fantasy economics […] You can then work your way into a discussion about why it’s important that parties don’t peddle that kind of policy agenda and start to deconstruct in a thoughtful way some of the things that they say.
“Reform might say, we’re going to take everybody earning up to £20,000 out of Income Tax altogether. Thoughtfully, we should observe that that would cost about up to £80 billion…
“Reform has a duty to explain how it’s going to fund that. Otherwise, it’s left peddling fantasy demands that would be extremely dangerous and very damaging to our economy; and that would have real consequences.”
He also ruled out any chance of the Conservatives ever working with Reform UK.
Stride continued: “I don’t want to have any coalition or arrangement with Reform.
“Why would I want to have a coalition, or something about a merger, or whatever it may be, with a party whose economic prescription for our country will be completely ruinous?”
He added: “I don’t think we should be indulging in populist politics in the sense of going out there and promising stuff that we know people want to hear but we don’t have any proper plans for.
“We have to emerge, if we are to win the next election, as the grown-ups in the room that have done the deep thinking to come up with the answers to meet the challenges that we face.”
Join our dedicated BirminghamLive WhatsApp community for the latest updates sent straight to your phone as they happen.
You can also sign up to our Money Saving Newsletter which is sent out daily via email with all the updates you need to know on the cost of living, including DWP and HMRC changes, benefits, payments, banks, bills and shopping discounts.
Get the top stories in your inbox to browse through at a time that suits you.