FORMER home secretary Sajid Javid has reacted to comments from Liz Truss in which she said productivity in the UK lags behind other countries.
He told GB News: “In terms of productivity, of course, we do want to see productivity rise in this country, it has been a long running problem under successive governments.
“When you look at productivity levels, they are generally lower in the UK but that has nothing to do with the effort and how hard workers work in the UK.
“From running the health service, I can tell you those doctors and nurses couldn’t work any harder.
“What it has everything to do with is making sure those workers are supported not just by their businesses, but very importantly, by the government in terms of the capital investment, whether that’s infrastructure, things like broadband, and by skills investment in the right places.
It’s not just a level of investment, but making sure it’s happening in the right places. And that’s what Liz [Truss] is certainly focusing on when she thinks about our long term economic plans.
“It’s not just about the tax cuts, which are hugely important. I think she’s absolutely right on that point about kickstarting growth with tax cuts, but it’s also about making those decisions around investment and the vital supply side reforms.”
Asked about helping people cope with rising prices on Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Rosie Wright on GB News, he said: “If you listen to that inflation number today, of course there’d be many families that when they hear that will be even more worried than they are and everyone understands that.
“That’s why it’s important for government to do what it can now, no government can mitigate every consequence of high inflation. This is also a global problem.
“We know that the major causes have been the pandemic and then, of course, the war in Europe and there’s not a single economy in the world that’s not facing a similar challenge.
“…if Liz is Prime Minister, what can she do? She recognises that it’s going to require some immediate short term action, and that is why she has said, as well as some of the policies she’s already announced about letting people keep more of their own money for the tax cuts, which of course, helps at a time like this especially, it’s also about the longer term changes.
“And that’s why she’s going to have an emergency budget within weeks of taking office that will set out those plans, once she’s got all the information and data in front of her and that shows just how much of a priority this is for her.”
On so-called blue on blue attacks during the leadership campaign, he said: “The party has gone through a very difficult time, especially in the last few months. We can all see that.
“That is another reason for me why I think Liz is the right person to take things forward because as well as policywe’ve talked about, it’s also about bringing my colleagues back together again.
“If you look at the support that Liz already has, it’s very broad based across the party, all wings of opinion as it were from the party uniting behind one person already, so I think she’s in a much better place to reunite the party. And if you take that you’re reuniting the party and the policy platform.
“She’s easily I think the best to beat Keir Starmer at the next general election.”
