THE government is not fit for purpose and the economy is being mismanaged, according to the Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride.

Speaking on the Camilla Tominey Show on GB News, he said: “I don’t want to sort of personalise this around what happened at Prime Minister’s Questions, which we are told that there was a personal reason why Rachel [Reeves] was very distressed. I think we should just respect that.

“But stepping away from that situation, of course, absolutely terrible mistakes have been made with our economy, not just by this Chancellor, but also by the Prime Minister, in terms of being a government that came in saying they weren’t going to put up everybody’s taxes, then clobbering businesses and destroying growth.

“They then have gone out and borrowed vast amounts of money, stoked up inflation, so we’ve got interest rates higher for longer, which is hitting people and businesses up and down the country.

“And of course, overall, mismanaging the economy by destroying the so-called fiscal headroom that the Chancellor has against her targets, which is going to mean, I’m afraid, increase taxes in the autumn, which are going to be really difficult for a lot of people who are already struggling because of the choices taken by this Chancellor.”

Asked if the Chancellor should resign, he said: “They should all go and if Rachel goes, the Prime Minister should definitely go.

“We’ve had far too long over the last year of broken promises. A government that said, for example, they wouldn’t tax out farmers, and then came and they did exactly that. They said they wouldn’t means test the winter fuel payments for pensioners, then they did exactly that.

“They said they wouldn’t put up our taxes left, right and centre, including national insurance. And they did exactly that. And we’ve now seen a government that is so chaotic it’s almost U-turning by the minute.

“U-turning on the winter fuel payment, U-turning on our pressure for them to have a national inquiry into grooming gangs. U-turning under pressure from their own back benches just last week on welfare, which is leading to this growing black hole of unfunded commitments.

“There’s about £6-7 billion of those lying around and that’s why I wrote to the OBR…this government said they would not get into the business of unfunded commitments. And we don’t know what the figures are now going to be looking like and yet, we’re taking big decisions in Parliament.”

He added: “I think the whole lot of them are not fit for purpose. Is quite obvious that the way that the economy is being mismanaged at the moment is hitting people right up and down our country, and I’m afraid it’s possibly going to get even worse in the autumn.

“So that’s not a record that would substantiate most people staying in their roles.”