Alistair Darling on reducing the deficit

On 29 July 1997, Alistair Darling said: “The Government have also introduced measures to begin a programme to reduce the deficit—the massive debt—that we inherited because of the outgoing Conservative Government's mismanagement of the economy. It is necessary to reduce debt if we are to secure the stable platform that the country needs to build for the future.”

How wrong he was back then on reducing the deficit and how times change. As David Cameron made clear yesterday – in 1997, debt was £350 billion – now it is getting on for £860 billion. In 1997 Labour inherited a £6 billion deficit – today it is £167 billion. In 1997 we were ranked seventh in the world for competitiveness – now we are 13th. Gordon Brown once said he’d abolished boom and bust, but has actually given us the longest and deepest recession since records began. This Budget was a nonsense.