STEPHEN Flynn has told the Prime Minister to “get off his backside” and fix rising prices and mortgage rates.
The SNP Westminster leader faced off against Rishi Sunak in their first PMQs exchange since the end of the summer recess on Wednesday, and Flynn skewered the Tories on their economic policies, which have seen mortgage rates rocket as the economy stagnates.
The Office for National Statistics estimates the UK economy to have grown by just 0.5% in June this year.
Drawing attention to the anniversary of Liz Truss becoming prime minister, Flynn said: “The public needs no reminding that today marks a year since the Prime Minister’s predecessor took office.
“And upon her speedy departure they would have thought that things were going to get better.
“But when we look at unemployment figures, they’re higher. When we look at food prices, they’re higher. When we look at mortgage rates, they’re higher. And economic growth, it’s stagnant.
“So can I ask the Prime Minister when is he going to get off his backside and do something about it?”
His barb referenced a comment from the Education Secretary who used the colourful phrase to urge headteachers in England to provide information to the Government on collapse-risk concrete in schools.
Sunak replied: “What [Flynn] failed to point out is that the amount of times I’ve sat across the despatches from him and his colleagues and heard how, somehow, we were a laggard when it comes to growth…
“What he didn’t do is take the opportunity to correct the record today, now that the figures have been published which demonstrate in fact we had the fastest recovery out of any European economy after Covid.”
Meanwhile Labour leader Keir Starmer took the Government to task over collapse-risk concrete which has closed some schools in England.
He said: "The truth is, this crisis is the inevitable result of 13 years of cutting corners, botched jobs, sticking-plaster politics.”
Starmer said it was “the sort of thing you expect from cowboy builders”, adding: “The difference is in this case the cowboys are running the country.”
Sunak replied: “Before today, he never once raised this issue with me in Parliament.
“It wasn’t even worthy of a single mention in his so-called landmark speech on education this summer, and if we had listened to him, our kids would have been off school and locked down for longer.”
Labour have disputed this and pointed to his attack on the Tory record that had seen "school buildings start to crumble" in the June speech.
The PM's spokesperson refused on Wednesday afternoon to correct the record, saying: "The PM was clearly talking about Raac [reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete] and Starmer did not mention Raac in his speech.”
