Rachel Reeves faces questions over future in Hamlet-inspired Tory attack

Rachel Reeves’ handling of the economy was compared to a Shakespearean tragedy, as the Tories questioned her future by claiming: “To go, or not to go, that is now a question.”

Shadow chancellor Mel Stride attempted to summon the spirit of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet during a House of Commons attack in which he accused the Government of making promises to voters while “pouring the poison into their ear”.

He also joked the decision of Ms Reeves not to answer an urgent Commons question on the economy ahead of her weekend China trip had been branded the “Peking duck” in Labour circles.

Ms Reeves argued the “economic headwinds” facing the UK showed the Government must go “further and faster in our plan to kickstart economic growth” after it “plunged” under the Tories.

Downing Street has said Ms Reeves will be Chancellor for the “whole of this Parliament” following questions over whether her future in Number 11 was guaranteed amid high Government borrowing costs.

Responding to a statement from the Chancellor, Mr Stride told MPs: “We have seen it all before. Socialist governments, that think they can tax and spend their way to prosperity, Labour governments that simply do not understand that if you tax the living daylights out of business, you will get stagnation.

“They do not understand, because there is barely a shred of business experience on the frontbench opposite.”

He added: “This whole sorry tale is nothing short of a Shakespearean tragedy, playing out before our eyes. This is the Hamlet of our time. They promised the electorate much, while pouring the poison into their ear.

“At the end, you can feel the end, the Chancellor flailing, estranged, it seems, from those closest to her, those about her falling, the drums beating ever closer.

“To go, or not to go, that is now a question. The Prime Minister will be damned if he does, but he will surely be damned if he does not. The British people deserve better.”

Ms Reeves said Mr Stride had provided “absolutely nothing” on what he would do for the UK economy, adding: “You can now see what happens when the Leader of the Opposition (Kemi Badenoch) tells the shadow cabinet that they shouldn’t have any polices.

“Because as far as I can tell, the Conservative Party’s economic strategy is to say that the UK should not engage with the second-largest economy in the world or indeed with our nearest neighbours and our biggest trading partners in the European Union.

“His economic strategy is to support higher spending but none of the right decisions that are required to deliver sound public finances.

“His economic strategy is to ignore the mistakes of the past with no apology to the British people for his part in Liz Truss’s mini budget that crashed the economy.

“Now, I mention Liz Truss’s mini budget, but I appreciate that having said that I may now receive a cease and desist letter from her later.”

Ms Reeves went on to defend her trip to China before accusing the Conservatives of presiding over 14 years of “stagnant economic growth, higher debt and economic uncertainty”.

She added: “And we have seen global economic uncertainty play out in the last week.

“But leadership is not about ducking these challenges, it is about rising to them. The economic headwinds that we face are a reminder that we should, indeed we must, go further and faster in our plan to kickstart economic growth that plunged under the last government.

“By bringing stability to the public finances after years of instability under the party opposite, unlocking investment that plummeted under the previous government and pushing ahead with the essential reforms to our economy and public services.

“That is my message to the House today because if we get it right, the prize on offer to us, to the British people is immense – the opportunity to make working people better off by making Britain better off. That is the mandate that this Government has and this is what we will deliver.”