Economy: Credit Rating

Lord Adonis Excerpts

Monday 25th February 2013 Lords Chamber

[Lord Adonis]

My Lords, the Conservative Party manifesto said:

“We will safeguard Britain’s credit rating”.

When that rating was maintained immediately after the 2010 election, the Chancellor said:

“That is a big vote of confidence … in the coalition government’s economic policies”.

Does the Minister not feel embarrassed to have to come here this afternoon to eat all the Chancellor’s words, and does he not accept that this downgrade shows that the Government’s economic strategy has failed, in their own terms? Will he confirm that Moody’s says that the main driver of its decision to downgrade is the weak growth of the British economy? When does he expect growth to return to the 1.8% level of 2010?

At the 2010 Conservative Party conference, George Osborne said that a credit downgrade would put Britain “on the brink”, as he referred to:

“The lost jobs. The cancelled investment. The businesses destroyed. The recovery halted”.

Since all these things have now come to pass, is it not time to change course?