Liz Truss was 'right' to be radical, but the numbers need to 'add up', shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride tells Sky News

5 June 2025, 13:29

Former prime minister Liz Truss was right to be radical, but the numbers need to "add up", the Conservative shadow chancellor has told Sky News.

Sir Mel Stride said the 49-day prime minister was "absolutely right" to recognise that "radicalism" is needed to grow the UK economy, "particularly in a more dangerous world", but that it needed to be "delivered in the right way".

He was speaking after delivering a major speech in which he sought to put vast distance between the Conservative Party of today, and the consequences of the mini-budget in September 2022 that sent inflation and interest rates soaring.

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In blunt criticism of his party's former leader, Sir Mel vowed they would "never again" repeat the "mistakes" that she made, saying she "put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected".

"The credibility of the UK's economic framework was undermined by spending billions on subsidising energy bills, and tax cuts, with no proper plan for how this would be paid for," he said.

"As a Conservative, of course I want taxes to be as low as possible. But that must be achieved responsibly through fiscal discipline."

He said the mistakes in the mini-budget were rapidly "recognised" by the party's MPs, and stability was restored "within weeks" - but he acknowledged the lasting "damage" to their credibility.

Sir Mel said: "Let me be clear: never again will the Conservative Party undermine fiscal credibility by making promises we cannot afford."