The Central Devon MP, Mel Stride has hit back against the Government’s Spring Statement on Wednesday which announced big public spending cuts while promising long-term economic growth.

The Spring Statement, also known as the ‘mini-budget’, saw the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out plans on Wednesday to achieve growth in the long term with cuts to welfare budgets right now.

In the Statement on Wednesday (March 26), Conservative MP Mel Stride called the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, an “architect of her own misfortune” and a “gambler with half-fiddled fiscal targets”.

The Speaker Lindsay Hoyle intervened with Mr Stride’s speech and asked him to reflect on his wording.

This was after the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) downgraded economic growth for this year from two per cent to one per cent.

But overall the OBR has upgraded estimated growth for the next four years, to 1.9 per cent next year, 1.8 per cent in 2027, then 1.7 per cent in 2028 and 1.8 per cent in 2029.

Defence spending will increase by a further £2.2bn, which critics say could easily eat up most of the Chancellor’s financial headroom. She has pledged not to pay for day-to-day spending with borrowing but also not to raise taxes on working people. This will be difficult to keep to unless the economy improves.

The inflation forecast is set to average 3.2 per cent this year, up from 2.6 per cent previously forecast, before falling back to 2.1 per cent in 2026.