Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has spoken out over the prime ministers “spending splurge”, claiming that the government is risking economic ruin. He Branded Gordon Brown “irresponsible” for suggesting the government can “borrow without limit” to fight off the recession.

Mr Osborne launched his attack during his lecture are the London School of Economics, as the division over how to save the country’s economy gains momentum. David Cameron gave Mr Brown a grilling at Prime Ministers Question time earlier his week over the “death” of his fiscal rules on borrowing.

However, Mr Brown and the chancellor Alistair Darling insist they will allow government debt to rise and spend in a bid to keep the economy on track.

Mr Osborne argued that while unemployment and lower tax revenues always drive up borrowing during recession, there is no excuse for increasing state spending.

He feels that borrowing without limit is a poor choice, which makes it more difficult for the Bank of England to achieve a “sustained reduction in interest rates”.

“It saddles this generation and the next with a burden of debt that could take a decade or more to pay off,” Mr Osborne said.

“It means you end up spending more on paying debt interest than defending your country or educating your children. It means damaging tax rises at the very moment when you want to be reducing taxes to help the recovery.”

“Gordon Brown’s talk of a spending splurge tries to give the impression of activity and action, when in fact it is the road to economic ruin… under Gordon Brown everyone knows we will have higher taxes for many many years to come.”

“By ensuring that we don’t borrow without limits in a recession, we will open the way to lower taxes in the recovery.

“So there’s the choice in British politics. “Irresponsible borrowing now and higher taxes later under Labour.

“Or the responsible Conservative plan. Let the Bank of England cut interest rates now and lay the ground for lower taxes later.”

Our Random Articles

• Redundancy costs a firm over £16,000 per employee
• 80 per cent of SMEs don't provide pension scheme claims ACA survey
• "Stay-at-home Friday" will cost small businesses £250 million
• Small business leaders back the Euro but 71 per cent of Brits say "No"
• SFA hails small businesses as the lifeblood of the economy

More Links