Opposition unimpressed by Pre-Budget Report
The Shadow Chancellor has accused Gordon Brown of wasting money and breaking his own economic rules in this year’s Pre-Budget Report.
Responding in the House of Commons, the Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin said “the golden rule has turned to dross in his hands” and rather than borrowing only to invest, “he is borrowing to spend”.
“His current borrowing for the first seven months is almost twice as high as his last prediction for the year as a whole. And he’s just announced borrowing of £170 billion over six years.”
Claiming that respected financial institutions both around the world and in Britain are predicting a ‘black hole’ in government finance, Mr Letwin maintained: “The fact is, that the tide is going out on the Chancellor’s credibility.
“The tragedy is, that the Chancellor is spending and borrowing and taxing so much because he is not getting value for taxpayers’ money.”
He added: “He’s not Sir Lancelot. He’s Sir Waste-a-lot.
“After 66 stealth tax rises, why are there one million people on hospital waiting lists? After taxes have gone up by £5,000 per year per family in Britain, why are 5,000 people a year dying from infections picked up in dirty hospitals?”
Mr Letwin said the Labour Government had failed on public service delivery, arguing that “economic growth is siphoned off to pay for bloated bureaucracy that fails to give value for money”. He warned: “the Chancellor’s failure to give Britain’s taxpayers value for money will be the terrible legacy of this Government.”
Vince Cable, speaking for the Liberal Democrats, categorised today’s statement as the “economics of complacency” to go with last week’s “politics of fear” in the Queen’s Speech.
Dr Cable said there were “serious challenges ahead from the falling dollar and from the rapid downturn in the UK housing market and rising personal debt. But they have not been confronted.”
And he concurred with the Conservatives that: “Gordon Brown faces a specific challenge to his credibility from the threatened breach of the ‘golden rule’.”
Dr Cable said that the budget’s margin of safety is small, with “dangerous loose ends” in the form of Iraq and ID cards – costs he claimed which were out of control.
Finally, he reiterated Liberal Democrat calls for the National Audit Office to inspect and evaluate government accounts, saying: “The Chancellor can no longer get away with setting the tests and marking them himself.”
