Former Education Secretary and Home Secretary, Rt Hon David Blunkett MP, has reacted to the first growth forecasts from the new Office for Budget Responsibility.
The OBR has revised down Alastair Darling’s growth forecast for the year 2011 from the 3-3.25% predicted by the previous Chancellor to 2.6%.
They have also announced that borrowing is projected at £155 billion in 2010-11, down from the £163 billion projected in Budget 2009.
Mr Blunkett said: “The OBR is involved in a self-fulfilling prophecy: the lower the predicted growth, the greater the justification for the coalition Government’s cuts; the greater the cuts, the lower the likely growth.
“This cycle will be followed, somewhere down the line, by the claim that the OBR got it right.
“Of course, the same could not be said for ambitious growth with fewer cuts and a longer-term timescale for getting the deficit down.
“The fact is that predictions of the extent of the deficit have been wrong over the last 18 months; and borrowing has been going in the right direction, as projected borrowing has fallen, not increased.
“This Government must not play fast and loose with the economic recovery – or the most vulnerable, already at risk from cuts aimed at services for the most disadvantaged, will pay an even higher price.”
ENDS
Comments