Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget is admission of Tory economic failure, Labour says

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's mini-budget of sweeping tax cuts was an "admission of 12 years of economic failure" by Tory governments, Labour has said.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said the plan would not boost growth and "reward the already wealthy".

The measures were funded by unnecessary borrowing instead of a windfall tax on oil and gas firms, she added.

Mr Kwarteng spent billions on policies he said would shake-up of the UK's finances and boost economic growth.

In a statement to Parliament, Mr Kwarteng abolished the top rate of income tax for the highest earners as he unveiled the biggest package of tax cuts for decades.

His announcements included scrapping bankers' bonuses, reversing a rise in National Insurance and cutting stamp duty tax - a property purchasing tax - for some buyers.

But as the UK faces a recession, rising interest rates and soaring energy bills, Ms Reeves said "the Conservatives are the cost-of-living crisis".

The Liberal Democrats said the chancellor's plan was "a recipe for disaster that will leave families suffering from soaring prices while banks and oil and gas companies rake in huge profits".

The Scottish National Party said the Tory government was "robbing the poor to pay the rich" and its measures do not go help people on low incomes.

Mr Kwarteng told MPs he was fulfilling new Prime Minister Liz Truss's promise to be a "tax-cutting government".

"For too long in this country, we have indulged in a fight over redistribution. Now, we need to focus on growth, not just how we tax and spend," he said in his statement.

In her response, Ms Reeves congratulated the chancellor "on his comprehensive demolition" of the Conservative government's record of the past 12 years.

"Their record, their failure, their vicious circle of stagnation," she added.

Ms Reeves said borrowing was higher than it needed to be after the Bank of England raised interest rates and warned the UK may already be in recession. "This is casino economics - gambling the mortgages and finances of every family in the country to keep the Tory party happy," Ms Reeves said.

She criticised the chancellor for refusing to release an independent forecast of how his tax changes will impact the economy, as the government usually does when it delivers major financial statements.

But because Mr Kwarteng's statement is not technically a budget, he said he would release this forecast "in due course" before the end of the year.

Ms Reeves said without this forecast, the chancellor's statement was "a budget without figures, a menu without prices", asking what he had to hide.