The shadow chancellor repeatedly refused to say whether he believes Rachel Reeves is a better chancellor than Kwasi Kwarteng was, despite labelling the current chancellor "disastrous".

During an interview with Camilla Tominey, Mel Stride was pressed on the comparison after his recent criticism of the 2022 mini-budget. When asked directly if Reeves was better than Kwarteng, Stride responded: "I'm not going to get drawn into that."

He added: "I think Rachel Reeves has been a disaster as Chancellor."

When Camilla pressed again, asking "Well, was she better than Kwasi Kwarteng?", Stride deflected once more.

Stride refused to be drawn on speaking about Kwasi Kwarteng

"As I've said, Rachel Reeves and the Labour Party have been disastrous for our country," he replied, avoiding the direct comparison.

The refusal came as Stride defended his recent speech formally disowning Liz Truss's mini-budget, in which he promised the Conservatives would "never again" undermine fiscal credibility.

"I gave a speech last week in which I said that there were mistakes made at the back end of October, in 2022," Stride told Camilla. "That mini budget led to problems in the bond markets and so on."

He insisted this criticism didn't mean abandoning Conservative principles: "That's not the same thing as saying that we don't want a lower tax economy or a smaller state."

Stride wants to distance the new look Conservatives from Liz Truss's mini budget which sparked market turmoil

The shadow chancellor emphasised the importance of market confidence, stating: "We have to do it in a way which the markets have confidence in the actions that we're taking."

Stride used the interview to attack Labour's economic policies whilst defending Conservative plans for a lower tax economy.

"They've done the opposite of what we will ultimately be offering to the British people. They're putting taxes up left, right and centre, particularly on our businesses, which has killed growth," he said.

The shadow chancellor also criticised Labour's borrowing: "They've borrowed vast amounts of money, which has stoked inflation. That's kept interest rates higher."

Liz TrussPA

When Camilla challenged him on the similarities between Conservative and Labour records on tax and spending, Stride insisted his party would be different.

"Look, what we have got to be is that radical party," he said, outlining plans for "getting the tax burden down, getting a smaller state, getting our skills offer right, bearing down on welfare."

The exchange occurred just days after Stride's formal repudiation of the 2022 mini-budget, marking the first time the Conservative hierarchy under Kemi Badenoch has definitively distanced itself from Truss's economic policies.

In his speech last week, Stride had declared: "For a few weeks, we put at risk the very stability which Conservatives had always said must be carefully protected."

He acknowledged that "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."

The shadow chancellor's speech prompted a fierce response from Truss, who accused him of being "one of the Conservative MPs who kowtowed to the failed Treasury Orthodoxy."