LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s finance minister Rachel Reeves said she was tuning out her critics and would continue making difficult decisions in an effort to grow the economy, speaking after a bruising week in which opponents called for her to quit.
Concerns about Britain’s slow economy contributed to a surge in its government borrowing costs, while businesses have warned big increases on social security contributions paid by employers, introduced by Reeves, will further dampen growth.
Reeves insisted her decisions were correct and said they had been made in the national interest to put public finances back on “a firm footing”.
Her job, she told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, required “steely determination”.
“I’m happy to be the iron chancellor if that’s what you want to call me,” she added, in a nod to Margaret Thatcher, the Conservative former British prime minister whose uncompromising style earned her the nickname the “Iron Lady”.
Reeves said she would not let her critics get her down.
“I’m not going to let them (stop) me from doing what this government’s got a mandate to do, and that’s to grow the economy, to make working people better off,” she said.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by William James)
