Kemi Badenoch has warned that the UK risks seeking an IMF bailout unless the Labour government delivers an economic growth plan, though Chancellor Rachel Reeves rejected such concerns.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has warned the UK could face a 1976-style bailout from the International Monetary Fund unless the Labour government produces a credible plan for growth. Speaking on BBC Newsnight, she said she was “really worried” the country might go “cap in hand” to the IMF, citing rising borrowing costs and a “crisis” in bond prices. “A lot of the indicators are pointing in that direction,” she said.
Badenoch offered to work with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer “in the national interest” to cut welfare spending, arguing that growth and fiscal restraint were vital to avoid a “doom loop” of higher taxes and weak finances.
A Labour source accused her of having a “brass neck,” insisting the Conservatives had “crashed the economy.” Chancellor Rachel Reeves last week dismissed bailout fears, saying the UK remained on solid ground.
The last IMF intervention in Britain came in 1976, when the Callaghan government secured a $3.9bn emergency loan.