A senior Tory has been slammed for saying British people need a better “work ethic”.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said “as a country we need to lift our game” to compete with the likes of China and India.

His comments were immediately slammed by Labour, who accused him of having “a real brass neck” after the last Tory government left the economy in a mess.

Appearing on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, Philp was asked by Nick Robinson: “Do you think that belief in hard work is something that’s missing in Britain today?”

Philp replied: “I do a bit. There are nine million working age adults who are not working, and as we compete globally with countries like South Korea, China, India.

“We need a work ethic, we need everybody to be making a contribution. We are in a global race and that means we’ve got to be competitive and it means we’ve got to work hard. And I think as a country we need to lift our game, we need to up our game.”

Responding to his comments, a Labour spokesperson said: “Chris Philp was the architect of the Liz Truss mini-budget which crashed the economy and sent family mortgages rocketing.

“After the Conservatives’ economic failure left working people worse off, it takes some real brass neck for the Tory top team to tell the public that it’s really all their fault.

“It’s the same old Tories. They haven’t changed and they’ve learned nothing.”