Global Arab Network | Conservative: Labour’s Legacy to Britain, Debt to Reach £1,376 Billion

Translate this article to your language:

GANPublications

e-Publications

Add Site to Favorites

Add Page to Favorites

Make Homepage

Share This Page

RSS Feed

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| |

Conservative: Labour’s Legacy to Britain, Debt to Reach £1,376 Billion

- Ahmed Gamal

Friday, 18 June 2010 15:32

Conservative: Labour’s Legacy to Britain, Debt to Reach £1,376 Billion

Ahead of next week’s Emergency Budget the Conservatives are today publishing Labour’s legacy to Britain report after 13 years in charge.

Labour’s Last Will and Testament outlines Labour’s economic failures and the problems they have left behind.

Conservative Party Co-Chairman, Sayeeda Warsi said: "We are setting out Labour’s legacy to the nation of waste, debt and cuts - the Last Will and Testament of Labour 1997 - 2010. Let no one be in any doubt about the mess that Labour have left behind. We are all in this together and must realise the consequences of their 13 years in charge.

"That’s why we have to do something about this. The cuts that are coming are Labour’s cuts.”

Labour’s Legacy to Britain report stated the following:

o    Labour left every man, woman and child in Britain owing £22,400. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecast that in 2014-15 Net Debt will reach £1,376 billion. This works out at £22,400 per person, based on a UK population of 61.4 million (ONS, Mid-Year Population Estimates);

o    Labour left us with one of the worst deficits in Europe. According to forecasts by the European Commission and new UK forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK has the second largest deficit of all 27 member states in 2010, as well as larger than the US and Japan. On the OBR's forecast, the UK deficit will be 10.5 per cent of GDP in 2010-11. This is higher than the EU's forecasts for France (8%), Germany (5%), Japan (6.7%), Greece (9.3%), Italy (5.3%) or Portugal (8.5%). (Office for Budget Responsibility, Pre-Budget Forecast, June 2010, Table 4.3; European Commission, European Economic Forecast - Spring 2010, 5 May 2010)

o      Labour left 2.47 million out of work. At the end of Labour’s term, unemployment was 2.47 million (ONS, Labour Market Statistics, June 2010);

o    Labour left one in five young people unemployed. 19.6 per cent of those aged 16-24 are unemployed according to the latest figures (ONS, Labour Market Statistics, June 2010, Table 14);

o    £3 billion on benefit overpayments and £10 million on tax credits for the dead. £3 billion or 2.2 per cent of total benefit expenditure was overpaid in 2008/09 due to fraud and error (DWP, Fraud and error in the Benefit system: April 2008 to March 2009, 2009). Since 2003, approximately £10 million have been paid to the dead in tax credits (Public Accounts Committee, Tax Credits and Income Tax, 24 March 2009, para. 6 and Hansard, 8 Oct 2007, Col. 244W, 10 July 2008, Col. 1786W, 29 June 2009, Col. 24W)

o    Labour sold off Britain’s gold at a 20 year low in the market. On 7 May 1999, Gordon Brown announced that he was planning to sell off 400 tonnes of gold at a 20-year low in the market - now nicknamed the “Brown Bottom” by gold traders. Gordon Brown sold off Britain’s gold for between $256 and $296 an ounce, raising $3.496bn (£2.343bn at the then exchange rate). Since then the gold price has more than quadrupled to $1,227 an ounce (Bloomberg, accessed 15 June 2010).

Global Arab Network

Add comment

The opinions of the authors in articles published are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Global Arab Network
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Published comments are the opinions of private individuals and do not reflect the views of Global Arab Network