Exclusive: Torsten Bell defends Labour’s spending plans, saying ‘the status quo is economically and morally bankrupt’

Britain’s crumbling public services are bad for business, and spending more taxpayers’ money to fix them is a pro-growth policy, the pensions minister, Torsten Bell, has argued.

Rachel Reeves has been accused by business lobby groups of clobbering the economy with the £25bn increase in employer national insurance contributions imposed in her October budget.