Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid was joined by former Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng and journalist Kevin Maguire on today’s instalment of the ITV news programme when she took aim at Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the wake of her “strange” Spring Statement, which she delivered on Monday in the House of Commons.

An animated Reid went so far as to compare Reeves to Iraq’s former Foreign Affairs minister, Muhammad Saeed Al-Sahhaf, who was nicknamed “Comical Ali” for his clearly inaccurate commentary. He rose to prominence during the 2003 invasion of Iraq when he was a spokesperson for Saddam Hussein’s government.

Speaking to the panel on Good Morning Britain, Reid shared: “Did you not find it very strange yesterday watching the Chancellor Rachel Reeves standing up in the House of Commons and giving a Spring Statement about her wonderful plans and how growth is going to be a fantastic thing for the UK economy and how everybody is going to be £1,000 better off in the next couple of years?

“It reminded me of one of those Iraqi politicians during the war, like Comical Ali, while Baghdad is burning in the background, and they just go, ‘It’s all fine, we are winning.’

“The Chancellor didn’t seem to rewrite her statement on the basis of the economic shock which is happening behind us…”

Reeves used the Spring Statement to insist that Labour has the right economic plan for the UK, despite the Office for Budget Responsibility slashing its growth forecast for 2026.

She said, “The Government has the right economic plan for the country,” but it was met with immediate jeers from the opposition.

The Chancellor added: “The new forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility confirm that our plan is the right one – inflation is down, borrowing is down, living standards are up and the economy is growing.”

Good Morning Britain airs on weekdays on ITV from 6am.