Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband declare war on UK’s two biggest firms - and we all lose!
Hapless Chancellor Rachel Reeves has hit on an unusual way of generating growth. By waging war on UK businesses.
Reeves bangs on about “hard-wiring growth into every Cabinet decision" yet destroys it with every decision she takes. The Chancellor is a one-woman growth destruction machine, and here’s the latest example.
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca is literally the UK's biggest company. Yesterday, it withdrew plans for a £450million expansion of its vaccine manufacturing plant in Speke, Merseyside.
And Reeves was the reason.
Former Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set up the growth-generating deal last March, tempting AstraZeneca with a £90million sweetener.
Reeves wasted months trying to haggle that down to £40million, and Astra has had enough.
It pulled out in frustration at her ludicrous antics, blaming “the timing and reduction of the final offer compared to the previous government's proposal”.
AstraZeneca’s chief executive Pascal Soriot, arguably the FTSE 100’s best, previously said the plant was "absolutely ready to go”.
It’s certainly gone now.
A furious Hunt labelled it a “massive own goal”.
By trying to save £50million, Reeves cost the country £450million of investment in an area crying out for high-quality jobs.
It's another massive humiliation for the Chancellor, who can’t do simple sums.
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