Miliband accuses coalition of ‘rewriting history’
By Ian Dunt
Ed Miliband continued his New Year offensive today with a newspaper article in which he lashed out at the coalition for “re-writing history”.
The Labour leader, which has kick-started 2011 with a carefully planned series of media attacks on the government, said the financial crisis, not Labour, was responsible for the deficit.
“What is this deceit? It is that the deficit was caused by chronic overspending rather than a global financial crisis that resulted in recession and a calamitous collapse in tax revenues,” he wrote in the Times.
“One pound in every five of corporation tax disappeared in 2009-10. Their deceit ignores the evidence from around the world that a global credit crunch caused deficits to rise on every continent.
“The US and Japan face deficits of the same scale and for the same reason.”
The attack tackles the government’s attempt to paint the deficit as a result of Labour profligacy. Opposition strategists are concerned that if the attempt to cement the blame in voters’ mind succeeds, Mr Miliband will be unable to sell an alternate economic vision at the next election.
“Their deceit seeks to rewrite history, airbrushing out the fact that Britain’s debt at the outset of this crisis was the second-lowest in the G7; lower than it was under the Tories in 1997,” Mr Miliband continued.
“And it forgets that neither of the two parties now in government called for lower spending at the time.”
Mr Miliband also tackled the Conservative argument that he opposes every cut in a knee jerk manner and promoted the view that the spending cuts are a choice, not a necessity.
“It is not true we opposed every cut,” he wrote.
“Labour is clear that spending is not the answer to every problem.
“But neither is it true that Labour is to blame for the deficit or that the deficit reduction programme being pursued by this Conservative-led government is necessary and fair.”
He added: “Some people might shrug and say low growth and squeezed family budgets are a price worth paying.”
Despite a modest two-point lead in the polls, widespread suggestions that Labour will win the upcoming Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election and a series of strong PMQs performances, Mr Miliband still faces murmurs about his leadership.
The Labour leader is struggling to assert his control over a party which was deeply split over who to select in the leadership contest.
Westminster pundits also suggest that Mr Miliband’s two-year policy assessment process is a luxury he cannot afford during a tumultuous period of spending cuts.
