EMBARRASSMENT FOR BROWN AS HARMAN JOINS CHORUS AGAINST CUTS.

EMBARRASSMENT FOR BROWN AS HARMAN JOINS CHORUS AGAINST CUTS.

LABOUR THREATEN TO PUT RECESSION RECOVERY INTO REVERSE

In an eve of Budget warning, SNP Treasury spokesperson, Stewart Hosie MP, has urged the Chancellor to step back from plans to slash public spending in the teeth of recession.

Mr Hosie’s comments come as the Chancellors Cabinet colleagues – including Deputy Labour Leader Harriet Harman and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson – warn against Alistair Darling’s £15bn public spending cuts. The Scottish, Welsh and Irish Governments, along with unions and industry, have already warned against the proposals.

Mr Hosie said:

“Harriet Harman’s last minute admission is an embarrassing blow for Gordon Brown.

“We need a recession busting Budget, but instead we seem set for a Downing Street fire sale which risks making the downturn even deeper.

“Slashing public spending will throw economic recovery into reverse, putting jobs and investment at risk just at the moment we need accelerated public investment.

“Gordon Brown spent months lecturing the world on the importance of fiscal stimulus, and now his Chancellor is doing the absolute opposite. There is a world of difference between efficiency savings and cuts and, despite warnings from all the devolved governments, as well as industry and unions, these are cuts pure and simple.

“This Budget should be focused on delivering real help for households, and making sure businesses are not burdened at the very point we need them to invest and chart a recovery from recession. Instead, I fear the whole country will be set back by Labour’s recession recklessness.
“With the powers that it has the Scottish Government is leading a serious response for recovery, but they need the tools and the resources to do the whole job. Borrowing powers to help reflate the economy would be a step in that direction.

“Alastair Darling should listen to the warnings of his own Cabinet colleagues and the STUC – who are all warning that cutting expenditure is utterly the wrong thing to do.”