Reeves says she won't let critics get her down

Rachel Reeves has said she volition not fto critics "get maine down" pursuing a bumpy fewer days for the UK economy.

The chancellor was speaking to the BBC's Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast towards the extremity of a week which saw the country's borrowing costs emergence to the highest level for respective years.

Reeves said the emergence was "not a British phenomenon" and that different countries had besides seen borrowing costs increase.

She besides insisted she had "got what it takes to present for radical successful this country" and the ideas to "turn things around".

On Thursday, figures showed the UK system grew by 0.1% successful November fuelling interest that maturation could stay stagnant for immoderate clip to come.

The Conservatives person accused the chancellor of "burying her caput successful the sand" and called for an "urgent alteration of course".

The Liberal Democrat's Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said Reeves had "put the handbrake connected the system with her misguided jobs tax" - a notation to the emergence to the National Insurance paid by businesses.

Speaking to the BBC, Reeves said the existent levels of maturation were "not bully enough" and that boosting the figures was the "number 1 ngo of the Labour government".

As portion of that mission, Reeves said she would beryllium gathering regulators to promote them to "do what is needed" to boost growth.

"We are not going to beryllium capable to turn the system if the regulators support doing what they're doing."

She added that determination was not "a country large enough" to conscionable each the UK's regulators.

Since coming to powerfulness successful July, Reeves has faced disapproval for respective of her decisions including removing the wintertime substance payment from each but the poorest pensioners, changing inheritance taxation rules for farmers and opting not to compensate women affected by changes to the authorities pension age.

She defended those moves arsenic "difficult decisions" that were "the close decisions successful the nationalist interest".

She added that she wished she had arrived successful the occupation and been told "'the money's coming in'... past I could person made antithetic decisions".

"But successful the circumstances that I inherited, I judged that I had to marque definite the sums added up."

Asked if her decisions had damaged concern confidence, Reeves asked: "What was the alternative?

"All decisions person consequences but ideate the alternative.

"Imagine that I hadn't addressed that occupation and present erstwhile fiscal markets look astatine the UK, they would beryllium saying 'this is simply a authorities that is not existent astir the concern that it faces, it is spending much wealth than it is bringing in. It's having to get much and more'."

Asked astir the disapproval she had faced, Reeves said: "I haven't taken it personally.

"Some radical don't privation maine to succeed. Some radical don't privation this authorities to succeed."

The chancellor added: "That's just enough. That's their prerogative. But I'm not going to fto them get maine down. I'm not going to fto them halt maine from doing what this authorities has got a mandate to do, and that is to turn the economy."