Oliver Dowden slams Rachel Reeves as ‘sheep in wolves clothing’ for posing as next Margaret Thatcher

DEPUTY PM Oliver Dowden has slammed Rachel Reeves for posing as the next Margaret Thatcher — branding her a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

Shadow Chancellor Ms Reeves dubbed herself the new Iron Lady and vowed to bring sweeping economic change “as we did in the 1970s”.

But Mr Dowden accused her of masquerading as the Tory “icon” because Labour governments always trash the economy.

Writing in today’s Sun on Sunday, he said: “I was amused this week to see Labour’s Rachel Reeves trying to portray herself as the next Margaret Thatcher.

“Wasn’t it just a few years ago that she was knocking on doors, persuading people that the socialist Jeremy Corbyn should be in No10.”

He accused Sir Keir Starmer of acting as “a true blue Thatcherite” to trick Brits into voting for him.

Mr Dowden added: “It says all you need to know about the desperation of the Labour Party that they have to pick a Conservative Party icon — because they have none of their own.

“Well, I’m flattered that Labour is pretending to be Conservative to woo voters.

“But I’m not fooled, and I don’t think The Sun on Sunday readers will be.

“Ms Reeves’ self-portrait as Thatcher really is a wolf in a sheep’s clothing.”

Meanwhile, Labour is planning a New Deal for Working People if they win the election to hand unions more powers to call strikes.

But CEO of British Independent Retailers Association Andrew Goodacre said: “Making employment law tougher on employers scares me a little and will scare smaller employers who aren’t blessed with lots of HR.”

Jane Gratton, at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “Over-tightening legislation risks doing harm to the majority of businesses and jeopardising jobs.”

But Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner said: “Some businesses will be frightened, like they were when the last Labour government introduced the national minimum wage. They said lots of businesses will go bankrupt. That never happened.”