Chancellor George Osborne will warn against a “dangerous cocktail of new threats” to economic stability in Cardiff today.
Chancellor George Osborne will warn against a “dangerous cocktail of new threats” to economic stability in Cardiff today.
This week China led a stock market plunge, North Korea claimed to test a nuclear bomb and tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran have run high, resulting in oil prices falling by 5% on Wednesday.
Osborne will accuse the public of “creeping complacency” that the UK is immune from global financial turmoil.
He will say: “Last year was the worst for global growth since the crash and this year opens with a dangerous cocktail of new threats.
“For Britain, the only antidote to that is confronting complacency and sticking to the course we’ve charted.”
Osborne will take a swipe at Labour by saying that progress “could still be reversed” by politicians advocating “billions of pounds more debt-fuelled public spending”.
He will add: “Anyone who thinks it’s mission accomplished with the British economy is making a grave mistake. 2016 is the year we can get down to work and make the lasting changes Britain so badly needs.
“Or it’ll be the year we look back at as the beginning of the decline. This year, quite simply, the economy is mission critical.
“But as we start 2016, I worry about a creeping complacency in the national debate about our economy. A sense that the hard work at home is complete and that we’re immune from the risks abroad.”
