Hunt: Don't vote Labour out of anger ...they'll just wreck our hard work

JEREMY Hunt has urged “upset and angry” voters to stick with the Conservatives so he can deliver the growth the country needs to fund the NHS and pensions.

- David Williamson

The Chancellor acknowledged the “tough times” people have faced but warned Labour coming to power risked wrecking Britain’s return to prosperity.

He conceded a Tory election victory was now “against the odds”, but insists he still believes his party can win a contest that will boil down to “Who is the best team?”.

Mr Hunt said his record showed he “faced the music” and made the difficult, but vital, decisions to bring down inflation – and he warned against supporting a Labour Party that tries to be “all things to all men”.

And in a direct message to people tempted to vote for Reform UK, the successor to Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, he said the “most dangerous” election outcome for them is “a Labour Government trying to unpick that settlement over Brexit”.

The Tories are 15 points behind Labour in the latest WeThink poll but Mr Hunt believes the coming weeks and months could deliver a raft of good news, such as a drop in interest rates.

The Chancellor said: “We’re now looking at a situation in which in the next couple of months we could come out of recession – although it’s been a very mild recession – we could see interest rates falling and we could see inflation falling to its target two per cent level. That would make a huge difference.”

Mr Hunt entered 11 Downing Street in October 2022 when Liz Truss sacked Kwasi Kwarteng in response to the market turmoil that followed his mini-Budget.

He does not deny the anger after Britain endured a post-pandemic cost-of-living crisis but claims the country now has the chance to grow faster than France, Germany and Japan – and unlock the investment the Health Service needs.