Rachel Reeves has declared she is “here for the long haul” as she brushed off calls to quit following widespread criticism.

The Chancellor, who has been accused of crashing the economy and stifling business confidence, claimed “some people don’t want me to succeed”.

Government borrowing costs have spiralled, economic growth has stalled and the Government is facing widespread fury for axing Winter Fuel Payments and introducing the so-called tractor tax.

Ms Reeves said she did not take attacks on her personally and “strongly believes” she has “what it takes” and “the ideas to turn things around”.

As she rebuffed critics of her economic decisions in her first broadcast interview since the turmoil erupted, the Chancellor also insisted she was “not going to let them get me down”.

She told the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast: “I haven’t taken it personally this week. It’s political. Some people don’t want me to succeed. Some people don’t want this Government to succeed … 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.”

Shadow Chancellor Mel Stride on Tuesday compared her situation to a “Shakespearean tragedy” and suggested she should be sacked, saying: “To go or not to go, that is now a question.

“The Prime Minister will be damned if he does, but he will surely be damned if he does not. The British people deserve better.”

She has faced criticism for continuing with a trip to China last weekend while government borrowing costs surged and the value of the pound slumped.

The Chancellor has enjoyed a brief respite this week, with inflation unexpectedly falling and a return to growth.

But economists said the economy growing by 0.1% in November was less than they had expected.

Fears are mounting Britain is heading for a period of so-called stagflation, where there is little or no economic growth combined with persistent inflation.

The Bank of England has pencilled in no growth again for the fourth quarter, following zero expansion in the previous three months.

And while figures on Wednesday showed a slight dip in inflation to 2.5% last month from 2.6% in November, many economists believe it will rise close to 3% in the coming months.

The November GDP figures take in the period after Ms Reeves’s tax-hiking Budget last October.

The Chancellor has faced an ongoing backlash for announcing an eye-watering £40 billion of tax rises including a raid on employers’ national insurance.

Businesses have warned the move will lead to price rises, while hiring will also be affected to offset the cost hit.

HSBC’s senior UK economist Liz Martins said the “mood music is not great” with the UK economy stagnating.

Speaking to the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast, Ms Reeves brushed off comparisons with short-live Conservative prime minister Liz Truss, whose mini-budget spooked the financial markets in 2022 and led to a spike in mortgage rates.

She continued: “The job I’ve always wanted is to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. I know that I’m qualified to do this.

“I know I’ve got the ideas to turn things around. I’ve made a start on that. Have we got more to do? Absolutely we do, and I’m going to deliver.”

The Chancellor dodged questions about whether she had destroyed business confidence, saying: “What was the alternative? Of course, all decisions have consequences. But imagine the alternative. Imagine that I hadn’t addressed that problem.

“And now, when financial markets look at the UK, they would be saying this is a Government that is not real about the situation that it faces. It is spending more money than it is bringing in, it’s having to borrow more and more.

“And I wasn’t willing to sweep under the carpet very real problems that we faced on the fiscal side. And the numbers didn’t add up. They now add up with me as Chancellor, and I swore, I promised, that I would never play fast and loose with the public finances like the previous government.”

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Ms Reeves said too many people believed in easy decisions, even though they could have “disastrous consequences”, adding: “I will always make the right decisions. I stuck to my guns. I showed that steely determination that I think a chancellor needs.”

Asked whether she was the Iron Chancellor, she replied: “If people want to describe me as that… 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. I went to school in south-east London in the 1980s, and then my secondary school in the 1990s… they were under-resourced, they were held back.

“She made decisions that she thought were the right decisions, and she took on her critics. I don’t agree with the decisions that she made, and not everyone is going to agree with the decisions that I make.”

Asked whether she was telling the country that she had not made the mistakes of Liz Truss, she replied: “I’m here for the long haul.”