Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner, Ed Miliband – who’s doing MOST damage? | Personal Finance | Finance

The most obvious suspect is Rachel Reeves. As Chancellor, her fingerprints are all over the crime scene as Britain careers towards bankruptcy on her watch.

But she didn’t act alone.

Deputy PM Angela Rayner is also in the frame. Her radical employment reforms are economic vandalism dressed up as workers’ rights.

Energy Secretary Ed Miliband joins her in the dock. His net zero charge is a smash-and-grab on the nation’s wallet.

We asked three expert witnesses to present the case against each of these defendants. Different motives. Different methods. But all guilty of endangering Britain’s economic health.

Now it’s time for the jury to decide.

In the courtroom of public opinion, Express readers can deliver their verdict in our exclusive poll.

Suspect 1: Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

Our special prosecutor is Benjamin Elks, grassroots development manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

“Rachel Reeves began by taking winter fuel payments away from millions of pensioners and doling out inflation-busting pay rises to public sector workers.

Since then, the so-called “iron chancellor” has been unrelenting in her assault on the nation’s economic prospects.

If you own a business, run a farm, want to pass something on to the next generation, hope to own your own home, take on a new employee, or simply want to provide for your family, Reeves has you in her crosshairs.

Her Budget tax rises stripped £40billion from taxpayers, while fiddling the national debt figures allowed her to borrow £30billion more.

But she can’t hide from economic realities. Borrowing in April topped £20billion despite all her tax hikes coming into effect.

Inflation was worse than expected, meaning the pound in your pocket goes that bit less than it used to.

While growth was up in the first quarter of the year, economists expect this to simply be front-loading of investment to beat US president Donald Trump’s tariffs and the fallout from the Budget.

It doesn’t have to be this way. And it’s possible the Chancellor might be realising this.

Reeves says she wants to “deliver growth”, but she’s trapped by a mindset that sees every economic problem as a reason to spend more, tax more and blame others. That’s not leadership, it’s economic vandalism.

Instead of raiding wallets, she needs to cut waste, trim bloated state budgets and end expensive vanity projects.

The government does too much and often does it badly. Slimming down the state, reducing our £2.8trillion national debt, and letting people keep more of what they make is the only way to get out of this mess.

Instead, Reeves has taken a hammer to the national finances. Guilty as charged.”

Suspect 2. Angela Rayner: Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Our special prosecutor is James Price, economic research fellow and former government senior special adviser.

“The question of which Labour minister is doing the most damage to Britain is the multiple-choice question to end all others.

For me though, it has to be Angela Rayner.

One is her obvious unsuitability for high office. A politician who calls her opponents “a bunch of scum” sets a terrible example for young Brits to look up to.

Then there is her historic support for Jeremy Corbyn. Just last year Rayner said she was ‘gutted’ Corbyn was finally kicked out of the Labour Party. Incredible.

But the real reason she is the most damaging Labour minister is her upcoming Employment Rights Bill. That is forecast to cost business at least £5billion.

It threatens to destroy small businesses and has been attacked by every major business group, as well as the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Her Renters’ Rights Bill is a squatters’ charter that will completely muck up the housing market, and make it impossible for landlords to turf out even the very worst renters.

If you think that’s all terrible and want to go for a quiet pint to make it all better – think again. Rayner’s pub banter ban will destroy the great British boozer as she seeks to criminalise having a laugh with your mates.

Not content with destroying British business, housing and pubs, she’s now treading on Rachel Reeves’s patch.

Rayner is demanding a load of extra taxes on the rich, which might sound fine until you realise the wealthy are already fleeing Labour’s taxes, meaning the rest of us face paying even more.

There’s nothing Rayner’s policies won’t damage. Can you seriously imagine her as the next PM? The only possible verdict is: Guilty, m’lud.”

3. Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy Security and Climate Change.

Our special prosecutor is Andrew Montford, director of Net Zero Watch.

“It can’t be bargained with, it can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity. Or remorse or fear, and it absolutely will not stop…ever.”

Those words were originally said of the homicidal robot played by Arnold Schwarznegger in the Terminator. But they could just as well have been about Ed Miliband.

Miliband is a green fanatic but has also shown himself to be the most dangerously effective member of the cabinet.

In his first 100 days, he announced spending on an astonishing scale: £8billion for GB Energy, £12billion in overseas “climate aid” and £22billion for carbon capture projects. That adds up to £1,500 per household.

Since then, he has piled costs onto consumers at an extraordinary rate. There is to be a new subsidy for wind farms, and existing schemes look likely to be extended.

There are to be new taxes on petrol cars and gas boilers, and the carbon taxes on gas-fired power stations will go up too.

Worse, he has turned the screws on the North Sea oil and gas fields, preferring to import these vital fuels instead.

Jobs have gone in the Grangemouth oil refinery, the Luton van plant, potteries in the Midlands, and across the oil and gas industry.

Our vital chemical industry is shrinking fast.

It will only get worse, as Miliband’s mad schemes come to fruition. Most of our remaining manufacturing base will undoubtedly be gone by the time Labour are ejected from power.

You could try to reason with him – to point out that renewables are a national security risk and that the grid is becoming dangerously destabilised by their presence

Or you could argue that it is madness to ship fuel halfway round the world rather than produce it locally.

You could plead with him that his policies will only put bills up and hurt the poor. But this will have little effect on the direction of policy. Like the Terminator, Miliband will remain entirely unmoved. Guilty, guilty, guilty.”

That concludes the case for the prosecution. Now the verdict is down to you. Vote in the poll below, or click here if you can’t see it.