Rachel Reeves Says A Labour Government Will 'Drain The Swamp'

The shadow chancellor pointed to allegations surrounding senior Tory figures, saying Labour will “clean up this mess”.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves.
Kirsty O'Connor - PA Images via Getty Images

Rachel Reeves has said the Labour Party will “drain the swamp” as a fresh round of scandals rock the Conservative government.

The shadow chancellor pointed to allegations surrounding top Tory figures, saying Labour will “clean up this mess”.

It comes as Conservative party chairman Nadhim Zahawi faces calls to quit over his tax affairs and Boris Johnson faces allegations surrounding a £800,000 loan.

Rachel Reeves; "You've got the chairman(Zahawi), who used to be the Chancellor... being find £1m... you've got Dominic Raab investigated for bullying & Johnson getting his extravagant lifestyle funded by a donor... it will take a Labour govt to drain the swamp.."#bbclaurak pic.twitter.com/Q5ZQWSFIze

— Haggis_UK 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@Haggis_UK) January 22, 2023

Asked if politicians should publish their tax returns, Reeves told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “I’d be very relaxed about that. But we’ve got a situation now in the Conservative Party where you’ve got the chairman, who used to be the chancellor, who it looks like has been fined a million pounds or more for not paying his taxes.

“You’ve got a deputy prime minister who is being investigated for bullying claims, and you’ve got a former prime minister who it is alleged had his extravagant lifestyle funded by a donor who was facilitated by the current chairman of the BBC, who incidentally got that job just after facilitating that arrangement.”

Kuenssberg stressed that all parties denied that they had done wrong in that scenario, but Reeves hit back: “But no-one seemed to think there was any need to declare anything in terms of conflict of interest.

“You’ve got a prime minister who is too weak to do anything about it.

“It’s going to take an incoming Labour government to clean up this mess, drain the swamp, because frankly it stinks.”

Polls have consistently put Labour 20 points ahead of the Tories and the party has set about putting itself on election footing.

They have already started gearing up efforts to build a war chest for the next general election.

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