Reeves is trying to put a positive gloss on today’s labour market statistics. Someone’s got to do it…
Speaking this afternoon in Belfast, she said:
“There was some really positive news in there. Employment since I became Chancellor last year is 384,000 higher… although the number of people unemployed increased slightly on the quarter, the number of people who are economically inactive actually fell by much more… Is there more to do? Absolutely there is. Everyone who can work should work… there are huge opportunities in our economy… we need to do more to support people back into appropriate work for them.”
Unemployment remains at a four-year high, job vacancies are down, and the working hours lost to strikes in the first half of 2025 was a whopping 279,000…
Speaking to Sky News off the back of Rachel Reeves’ Air Passenger Duty hike, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said:
“Labour is dependent on those Red Wall seats, and yet every move she makes poisons economic growth and damages the UK’s recovery… it’s the Chancellor who stumbles from policy misstep to policy misstep… I think her policy decisions are incredibly stupid.”