Impact of Brexit on UK economy even worse than critics predicted, says chancellor – UK politics live

Rachel Reeves also highlights austerity and lack of capital spending as key harms to UK economyRachel Reeves has suggested that the impact of Brexit on the economy has been even worse than critics predicted when the UK voted to leave the EU.Speaking at the Regional Investment Summit in Birmingham, in response to a question about the budget, she said:I don’t think that the past has to define our future. That’s why we are doing things differently. That’s why we are deregulating. It’s why we’re overturning the planning system. It’s why we are backing all regions of the UK with the capital spending that we’re putting in. Because I’m determined to defy those projections [from the OBR] and grow our economy quicker.We also know – and the OBR, I think, is going to be pretty frank about this [in its next report on the state of the economy, published to coincide with the budget on 26 November] – that things like austerity, the cuts to capital spending and Brexit, have had a bigger impact on our economy than even was projected back then.When Labour finally respond to a horrific, far right and racist policy proposal from a Tory MP, it comes with a heavy gloss of ‘I get where you’re coming from’ instead of the outright condemnation it deserves. Continue reading...