Miliband accuses Tories on economy

Ed Miliband launched an attack on the coalition Government's economic strategy
12 April 2012

Ed Miliband has accused the Government of "shrugging its shoulders" while the economy failed to grow.

The Labour leader acknowledged that "hard times ahead" were unavoidable, but insisted the coalition had "room for manoeuvre" to ease its deficit reduction strategy and promote growth.

"It was the depression of the 1930s that broke the idea that government was powerless in the face of hard times," he said in a speech to the IPPR thinktank.

"What did people say after the failure of government in that era? They said 'never again'. Never again government shrugging its shoulders in the face of economic difficulty. Yet here we are once again."

Mr Miliband seized on the words of Tory MP David Ruffley, a member of the Commons Treasury Select Committee, who called for the Government to borrow money to cut taxes.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4 Mr Ruffley said: "The markets will not go haywire if there was a modest loosening in borrowing in the short run, if it was for the right reason." The Tory backbencher said some of his colleagues were even discussing the possibility of cutting VAT, as proposed by Labour to help kickstart the economy.

His remarks helped bolster Mr Miliband's case as he appealed to voters to stop giving the Government "the benefit on the doubt" on the economy. He said the coalition's plan to reduce the deficit had "catastrophically failed" by choking off growth.

Mr Miliband acknowledged that many people had disagreed with Labour "for genuine reasons" but he urged them to reconsider the evidence amid worsening growth forecasts.

He described Tuesday's Autumn Statement and the accompanying economic and fiscal forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) as "a crucial moment" for the country.

"It will be the moment that we learn that the biggest economic gamble in a generation has failed," he said. "George Osborne promised growth, jobs, low inflation and borrowing falling. Growth is flat, unemployment up and inflation high."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in