Shadow chancellor offers support for leader but declines to back her claim about Britain being at risk of IMF bailout
In his FT interview Mel Stride, the shadow chancellor, also dismissed speculation that Kemi Badenoch will be replaced as Tory leader within the next year. Many of her colleagues think she will face a successful leadership challenge, most probably after poor results in the Senedd, Scottish parliament and English local elections next May.
Stride said that he thought Badenoch was similar to Margaret Thatcher, who was widely criticised when she became opposition leader in 1975 but who over time developed into an effective leader. He said:
We had all this with Margaret Thatcher back in the 1970s. Her voice wasn’t right, her hair wasn’t right, her dress wasn’t right, she wasn’t very good at prime minister’s questions. It took her some time to work her way into being the finished, formidable politician she was.
She is incredibly resilient, as cool as they come. She goes away, thinks about it and comes to a decision. I’m very confident Kemi will be fine. But it’s going to be bumpy — it’s going to be difficult.
Labour does not have any plan for growth. They thought that as soon as they got into power, things would just work because they’re Labour and they believe in their own righteousness. That is not working – they need to get a plan to grow our economy, otherwise we will end up going to the IMF cap in hand.
A lot of the indicators are pointing in that direction. Many very well respected commentators and economists are saying this.
I think that’s very unlikely. That’s not to say we couldn’t be heading for some kind of bond crisis with runaway yields.
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