Reeves can’t keep blaming the last government or global headwinds for doubling inflation – it’s a result of her own policies, says Gareth Davies

When the Conservatives left office in 2024, Britain was emerging from an incredibly challenging chapter in our history. Together we navigated the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, subsequent supply-chain shocks and extreme energy-price volatility. It was a monumental national task to rein in inflation.

All of these challenges were global in origin. Every advanced economy wrestled with the same forces. The impact was profound, with commodity and energy inflation spilling into transport, food prices and rents. It was tough, but in the end we saw inflation in the UK fall from a peak of 11 per cent to the two per cent target by the time of the General Election.

That achievement perhaps came at a political cost. We wanted to implement fiscal measures in the 2024 Budget that would have been welcomed by families and businesses, but because they were deemed inflationary by officials and the OBR, we put them on hold. Containing inflation became a key priority, because higher inflation means higher-for-longer rates, which hold back business activity and increase mortgage costs.

Fast forward to today, and........

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