Chancellor puts economy at heart of Labour campaign
Chancellor Gordon Brown attempted to place the economy at the heart of Labour’s forthcoming election campaign when he addressed the party’s spring conference in Gateshead today.
Addressing delegates, Mr Brown vowed to press ahead with reforms to continue economic stability and growth if Labour wins an historic third term in office at May’s expected general election.
He also told the conference reform is necessary to make Britain a world leader in the fields of education, science, business and enterprise and stressed Labour was the only party to be trusted with the economy.
Warning a Conservative victory at the polls would put at risk the country’s low unemployment, inflation and mortgage rates, Mr Brown claimed the “stakes are too high” for Labour supporters to stay at home or register a protest vote in the forthcoming election.
Highlighting Labour’s competence in handling the economy, Mr Brown stressed his party must become “the party of managers and employers, as well as employees” for Britain to withstand global competition from Asia’s burgeoning manufacturing industries.
“We must make any necessary reforms, introduce any new incentives, implement any new legislation required so… Britain achieves world leadership,” the Chancellor told Labour grassroots supporters.
On Friday night, Mr Brown confirmed he would not make any tax commitments until the publication of Labour’s manifesto, following the Budget, expected in March.
Opposition parties will scrutinise his speech for signs of whether the Chancellor is planning tax rises following the election, as the Conservatives claim.
Michael Howard’s party accuse Labour of raising taxes 66 times since coming to power in 1997 and claim Mr Brown will be forced to make further rises to fill a “black hole” in the public finances.
But the Chancellor says Conservative plans to lower taxes by cutting government bureaucracy will jeopardise public services.
“The central dividing line in the election will be between a Labour government which, on a platform of stability, will spend £60bn extra on our hospitals, schools and public services, and a Conservative Party that plans deep cuts of £35bn in our services,” Mr Brown said during Saturday’s speech.
Responding, Conservative economic spokesman George Osborne said that Brown was in “repeat mode”
Mr Osborne, said: “This was more talk from Gordon Brown. We’ve heard it all before. Instead of talking about the future he kept on talking about the past. He completely failed to say which taxes he would put up to fill the black hole in his spending plans.”
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman Vince Cable accused Mr Brown of overblowing his “very mixed” record on the economy.
“Gordon Brown has created a system of massive centralisation and bureaucracy,” said Dr Cable.
Following the Chancellor’s keynote speech, the Prime Minister will answer emails and text messages from ordinary voters as part of an interactive question session run by Capital Radio DJ Margherita Taylor.
On Friday, Tony Blair completed a whistle-stop tour of England, during which he unveiled Labour’s six pre-election pledges, which opposition parties criticised as “worthless.”
