Opposition parties have criticised a former minister who said British people needed a greater work ethic – pointing out his record under Liz Truss.
Chris Philp, who served as a senior Treasury minister during the former prime minister’s brief tenure in office, said he believed the UK citizens needed to “up their game” if the country was to compete with China and India.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson, the now shadow home secretary said: “There are nine million working-age adults who are not working.
“As we compete globally with countries like South Korea, China, India, we need a work ethic, we need everybody to be making a contribution.
“We are in a global race that means we have got be competitive and it means we have got to work hard.
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“As a country, we need to up our game.”
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats seized on his comments by highlighting the role Mr Philp played in the mini-budget, which led to a surge in borrowing costs and saw the pound slump to a 37-year low against the dollar.
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Mr Philp is understood to have been the leading advocate of the controversial move to scrap the 45p tax rate for the highest earners – which was later reversed.
The shadow home secretary told the BBC he believed the tax cuts in Ms Truss’s budget should have been balanced out with “some spending restraint” and that he made this case internally “but it wasn’t listened to”.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Chris Philp was the architect of the Liz Truss Budget which crashed the economy and sent family mortgages rocketing.
“After the Conservatives’ economic failure left working people worse off, it takes some real brass neck for the Tory top team to tell the public that it’s really all their fault.”
Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper added: “No one can doubt Chris Philp’s work ethic after he crashed the economy in just 39 days as Treasury minister under Liz Truss.
“He also treated himself to a £5,000 taxpayer-funded handout after finally resigning from Boris Johnson’s government.
“The British public will no doubt take his advice with a bucketload of salt.
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“The Conservatives could do with showing a bit more humility after trashing the economy and leaving the NHS on its knees.”
The Labour government is planning to unveil its welfare reforms in the spring. It has said it will stick to a commitment under the former Tory administration to reduce the welfare bill by £3bn over five years.
Earlier this month a review led by former John Lewis boss Sir Charlie Mayfield was launched into how businesses and government can work together to get the disabled and long-term sick into jobs.
