Oral Answers to Questions

Emily Thornberry Excerpts

Tuesday 21st June 2011 Commons Chamber

The Chancellor of the Exchequer was asked—

[Emily Thornberry (Islington South and Finsbury) (Lab)]

1. What assessment he has made of potential trends in the level of debt as a proportion of gross domestic product to 2014-15.

[Mrs Linda Riordan (Halifax) (Lab/Co-op)]

6. What assessment he has made of potential trends in the level of debt as a proportion of gross domestic product to 2014-15.

[The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne)]

This Government inherited plans that had Government debt rising as a share of GDP in 2014-15. Thanks to the credible plan that we have put in place, debt is now forecast to be falling in that year.

[Emily Thornberry]

Would the Chancellor of the Exchequer like to take this opportunity to explain why the Office for Budget Responsibility now says that the Government will need to borrow £46 billion more than was estimated a few months ago? Would he also like to take this opportunity to accept that, by cutting too far and too fast, we will fall into a vicious circle that will make it more difficult to pay off the deficit in the long term?

[Mr Osborne]

The public finance figures are out today, and they show that the British economy and the British Government are on track to reduce the budget deficit, as we forecast in the Budget. On a day like this, in a week like this, for the Opposition to suggest that we should abandon our credible deficit reduction plan shows how out of touch they are with what is going on in the world today.