Rachel Reeves has said she will not let criticism get her down after a tough few days for the UK economy.
The Chancellor was speaking on the BBC’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast at the end of a week which saw the country’s borrowing costs rise to their highest level in several years.
Reeves said the rise was “not a UK phenomenon” and that other countries had also seen borrowing costs rise.
She also insisted she had “what it takes to meet the needs of the people of this country” and the ideas needed to “change the situation.”
Figures on Thursday showed that the British economy grew by 0.1% in November, fueling fears that growth would stagnate for some time to come.
The Conservatives accused the chancellor of “burying his head in the sand” and called for an “urgent change of course”.
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokeswoman Daisy Cooper said Reeves had “put the handbrake on the economy with his misguided jobs tax”, a reference to the insurance increase national paid by companies.
Speaking to the BBC, Reeves said current growth levels were “not enough” and boosting the numbers was the Labor government’s “mission number one”.
As part of that mission, Reeves said she would meet with regulators to encourage them to “do what’s necessary” to spur growth.
“We won’t be able to grow the economy if regulators continue to do what they’re doing.”
She added that there was not “a room big enough” to meet all the UK regulators.
Since taking office in July, Reeves has been criticized for several of her decisions, including removing winter fuel payments for all but the poorest retirees, changing inheritance tax rules for farmers and the choice not to compensate women affected by changes to the retirement age.
She defended the measures as “difficult decisions” that were “the right decisions in the national interest.”
She added that she would have liked to get to this position and be told “‘money is coming’… then I could have made different decisions.”
“But in the circumstances I inherited, I judged that the sums had to add up.”
Asked if his decisions damaged business trust, Reeves asked: “What was the alternative?
“All decisions have consequences but imagine the alternative.
“Imagine if I hadn’t addressed this issue and now when the financial markets look at the UK they would say ‘this is a government that is not being real about the situation it faces, it spends more money than he brings in.’ . You have to borrow more and more.
Asked about the criticism she faced, Reeves said: “I didn’t take it personally.
“Some people don’t want me to succeed. Others don’t want this government to succeed.”
The Chancellor added: “That’s fair enough. It’s their prerogative. But I’m not going to let them bring me down. I’m not going to let them stop me from doing what this Government is mandated to do, and this is to grow the economy.”
