Liz Truss has announced she will resign as the prime minister of Labour over the next few months, amid fresh attacks from the Opposition on her time as Prime Minister. One year ago, it is the anniversary of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng's ill-fated'mini-budget' that sought to slash taxes and boost Britain's growth, only to spook the markets and lead to Ms Truss' record-breaking 49-day tenure in Downing Street. One of the reasons for the mini-budget sparked such panic in the markets was Ms Truss'decision to announce the series of tax and spending measures without a formal analysis by the Office for Budget Responsibility, which scrutinises the Government's policies on budget days. In trying to capitalise on the sour memories among much of the public, Labour has announced a new policy to give the OBR bureaucrats more power and influence over British politics. Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves would allow the Office to publish forecasts and analysis alongside any tax and spending changes by the Government - and backed by a new law.
Rachel Reeves, speaking on the Today programme this morning, said the move would prevent the Tories from 'crashing the economy' in future. In response, Ms Truss said she hasn't taken the ongoing barrage lying down. The former prime minister said Labour's policies 'beggar's belief' and will have yet more power to 'bureaucrats in London'.
In July, Truss launched a new project called the growth Coalition, which aims to advise G7 politicians on how to tackle the widespread crisis of declining growth and falling GDP per capita. One of the group's jobs will be producing its own modelling, which it says will be more accurate than that produced and used by the current economic establishment like the Treasury and OBR. They aim that more dynamic modelling of changes to tax and spending at budgets will better forecast the effect and costs of certain policies five, 10 and 20 years down the line. A tax rise won't just be interpreted as bringing in 'x' amount of money to the Treasury coffers, but analyse the wider impact of the policy, and how it may encourage reduced spending, earning and productivity.