Rachel Reeves has hit out at critics who “don’t want to see her succeed” amid soaring UK borrowing costs and slumped growth.

The Chancellor said she wouldn’t let criticism over her decision to travel to China last week get her down, despite a surge in borrowing and a drop in the value of the pound fuelling arguments that she should focus on tackling problems on home soil before chasing foreign investment.

Her willingness to pursue unpopular policies has seen Ms Reeves lean into comparisons with Tory heavyweight Margaret Thatcher, and the MP has now said she is “happy” to accept the title of “Iron Chancellor” in a nod to her commitment to axing winter fuel payments and increasing National Insurance tax.

The Chancellor praised “Iron Lady” Thatcher for her ability to “take what she thought were the right decisions” and not bowing to her critics. She added: “I will make the right decisions. I’m happy to be the Iron Chancellor if that’s what you want to call me.”

“Margaret Thatcher is one of the reasons why I joined the Labour Party, because I did disagree very strongly with the direction she took our country in,” she told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast. “I don’t agree with the decisions that she made, and not everyone is going to agree with the decisions that I make.”

Rejecting speculation that Keir Starmer was considering replacing her in the cabinet, Ms Reeves also confirmed that she was “here for the long haul”, batting away comparisons to Liz Truss after a period of economic turmoil comparable to the aftermath of Truss’ disastrous 2022 budget.

“Every decision I make has consequences, but so does the counterfactual,” she said. “If I had made the decision not to address those very real pressures, then this is the consequence: borrowing costs would have gone through the roof. Borrowing costs not just for government but for families and businesses, as it did when Liz Truss was Prime Minister.”

Since unveiling a raft of tax hikes in her October budget, in a bid to tackle the “£22 billion blackhole” left by the Tory government, Ms Reeves has been blamed for a significant dip in business and buyer confidence.

While inflation unexpectedly fell to 0.1% this week, indicating a weak return to growth, the Office for National Statistics also revealed that December saw supermarket food sales fall by 1.9% to their lowest level in over a decade.

Although there doesn’t seem to be any respite in sight for the embattled politician, she won’t go down without a fight.

“Some people don’t want me to succeed. Some people don’t want this Government to succeed,” she said. “That’s fair enough. That’s the prerogative, but I’m not going to let them get me down.

“I’m not going to let them stop me from doing what this Government has got a mandate to do, and that is to grow the economy, to make working people better off.”