With news revealed today that the UK deficit is nearly £4 billion larger than previously forecast, Salford MP Rebecca Long-Bailey has launched a stinging attack on the Chancellor George Osborne.
Public sector finance figures released today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that public sector net debt has risen sharply by nearly £50 billion to £1,596 billion.
That equates to 83.3% of GDP.
Labour’s Shadow Treasury Minister said Osborne was “building a recovery on sand”.
She pointed to her party’s recently launched ‘fiscal credibility rule’, which would oblige any future Labour government to balance day-to-day spending with what it can raise in taxes.
The Conservative mantra while they have been in power has been that of prudent financial management.
For those of us on the ground, however, it means austerity at all costs, extreme benefit sanctions and swingeing budget cuts to our local authority, slashing their capacity to deliver frontline services.
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“The news that George Osborne’s deficit was even larger than thought in 2015-16 is another body blow for a Chancellor whose reputation for fiscal management is now in shreds,” said Rebecca Long-Bailey.
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP recently spoke alongside Long-Bailey in Salford at the ‘Closing the Gap’ conference, designed to present an alternative economic strategy for the country.
He said Labour would focus on sound financial policy, saying austerity was simply “a politically easy choice for the UK, since it works to the benefit of powerful vested interests.”
Salford’s Unemployed and Community Resource Centre have provided a full report on the April 29 conference, which you can read online here
In their statement released this morning, the Treasury focused on a £15.7bn fall in public sector borrowing for the year to March 2016, compared to the same period last year. That leaves public sector borrowing at £76bn.
A HM Treasury spokesperson said in a statement: “Today’s figures show further progress in fixing the record post-war defecit we inherited: borrowing is falling and we have the lowest April monthly deficit since the great recession.
“But the fiscal repair job is not finished and it would be dangerous to put this at risk.”
“[Osborne’s] recovery built on sand has led to slower wages and growth forecasts than expected, so it’s no wonder he keeps missing his targets for reducing debt and deficit,” Long-Bailey added.
“Labour’s Fiscal Credibility Rule would take a different approach, in line with the advice of most macroeconomists, to boost growth and reduce debt over the course of a Parliament.”
