At the Labour Party conference this week, Ed Miliband put himself forward to be Prime Minister after the General Election, but he failed to offer any serious plan to grow the economy. He didn’t even mention the deficit once.
In the original version of Miliband’s speech a section on the deficit called ‘Hard Truths’ was included. However, despite having the words, he chose never to speak them.
Not only did Ed Miliband forget to mention the deficit in his speech, experts say he actually plans to increase it. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) says Labour’s policy would lead to a ‘higher debt and higher deficit’.
For residents of Chelsea and Fulham, a return to a Labour Government, with Ed Miliband as Prime Minister, would mean an end to the economic recovery, a slowing of growth, higher mortgage rates, higher taxes and risks our future economic security.
Local MP Greg Hands said: “All Ed Miliband offers is more spending, more borrowing and more taxes. You can’t fund the NHS and other vital public services, if you lose control of the nation’s finances and bankrupt the economy like Labour did last time. Labour simply don’t have a long-term economic plan to secure a better future for Britain. Our country, our children and our grandchildren would be worse off under Ed Miliband’s weak leadership.”
Labour left Britain with the biggest budget deficit in its peacetime history. At £157.3 billion in 2009-10. Britain’s top business group, the CBI, has said more borrowing would ‘spook the market’. This would lead to soaring mortgages rates, hitting hardworking families.
In contrast, the Conservative led Coalition Government has cut the deficit by more than a third, and employment is up by an impressive 1.8 million since the election. Moreover, businesses have created over 2.1 million new jobs, and the private sector has created five jobs for every one lost in the public sector over the past four years.
Greg added: “If Ed Miliband chooses to ignore cutting the deficit, absolutely vital to Britain’s prosperity, how can hardworking taxpayers have any confidence that he will secure a better future for our country? Our long term economic plan is working, but it is too soon to put that at risk by returning a Labour Government. The simple reality is that Ed Miliband won’t cut the deficit – he’ll put it up with more borrowing, to fund wasteful spending just like Labour did last time.”