Peter Dowd MP, Labour’s Shadow
Chief Secretary to the Treasury, responding to today’s public
sector finance figures from the ONS, said:
“Three years after the Tories
promised they would close the deficit, the Government is still on track to
borrow around £50 billion this year. And the national debt continues to increase,
up by £62.3 billion on December 2016.
“The failures of austerity are
laid bare not just in the crisis in the NHS and across our public services, but
in the failure to achieve its stated aim of eliminating government
borrowing.
“Only yesterday we saw the
IMF’s forecast for global growth next year revised up yet the growth forecast
for the UK revised down, which on top of our fiscal position says all you need
to know about the failure of this Government’s economic policy.
“The next Labour Government will
have a fully-costed plan to eliminate the deficit over five years and reduce
government debt as a share of GDP over a Parliament, while investing for the
long-term to build an economy for the many, not the few.”
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