Tories write to Rachael Reeves pointing out she got sums on economy wrong to ‘talk down Britain’

•  Conservative Party chairman called for her claims ‘scaremongering’
•  Labour’s Shadow Chancellor’s claim had a 55 billion gap between figures

Rachel Reeves was under pressure to apologise for ‘scaremongering’ last night after wrongly claiming the economy is on course to shrink.

Conservative Party chairman Richard Holden called on Labour’s Shadow Chancellor to ‘correct the record’ after she claimed that the economy was expected to be £40billion smaller in 2027 than was forecast in March.

Mr Holden said figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility this week showed that the economy was expected to be 0.6 per cent bigger in 2027 than had been predicted earlier this year – equal to an improvement of around £15billion.

In a letter to the Shadow Chancellor last night, Mr Holden said there appeared to be ‘a £55billion gap between what you say and reality’.

He said Ms Reeves appeared to have failed ‘either deliberately or recklessly’ to take account of a major upward revision to the UK’s past growth rates by the Office for National Statistics, which showed the UK had recovered from the pandemic quicker than either France or Germany.

Mr Holden wrote: ‘At every opportunity the Labour Party resorts to scaremongering and defeatism – instead of celebrating the resilience of our economy and the strength of British businesses up and down the country.’

Labour has been approached for comment.