Emma responded to George Osborne’s Autumn Statement today (3 December) by criticising the Chancellor’s failure to explain the scale of cuts he would make to public services.
Figures in the Autumn Statement suggested that under the Chancellor the UK could be facing £60 billion worth of additional budget cuts between now and 2020. The plans would take public spending to its lowest level since the 1930s. The independent Office for Budget Responsibility said that the cuts expected in the next parliament would be even greater than those seen so far.
The Autumn Statement also revealed that despite the savage cuts public services have endured over the last five years, the deficit remains high, with the Chancellor announcing he would have to borrow £75 billion more than previously planned.
In 2010 the Chancellor said the deficit would be wiped out by 2015, but now 2015 has almost arrived and a further five years of cuts are expected.
It was also revealed on Wednesday that wages may not return to their pre-recession peak until 2020, following four years under David Cameron when the average household is £1,600 a year worse off.
Emma said:
“The whole of the Chancellor’s speech was designed to hide the fact that he is planning more cuts, potentially even deeper than those we have already seen. People who have endured the last five years of Tory austerity are still waiting for their wages to rise, but all they are going to get from this Chancellor is more cuts to services. Even worse, the Government’s failure to get the deficit under control means that all that pain has been for nothing.”
“David Cameron and George Osborne have failed every test they set themselves in 2010 – they haven’t dealt with the deficit, they haven’t defended the NHS, and they haven’t protected people’s living standards. In 2010 they told voters to kick them out if they broke those promises – voters should do just that.”