Labour Can’t Pretend Economy Has Got Better Since Election – Guido Fawkes

IFS Chief: Labour Can’t Pretend Economy Has Got Better Since Election

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Outgoing Institute for Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson is giving the think tank’s summary of the spending review. There are criticisms…

First Johnson attacks Labour for pretending the economy is better than it was in “Phase One” when it made small cuts and raised taxes. Those cuts which it is now reversing…

“Despite some of the rather odd recent claims, neither the economic forecasts nor the public finances have improved relative to the genuinely difficult situation we knew about a year ago, rather the reverse.”

Johnson added Reeves’ speech “did not appear to be a serious effort to provide any useful information to anybody.” Huge council tax hikes are baked into government expectations and the review “assumes that council tax bills will rise by 5% a year” which means “bills look set to rise at their fastest rate over any parliament since 2001-05.” Most of which is getting sucked up by the NHS, which gets 90% of increases in day-to-day spending…

The IFS chief said there is no longer space for massive handouts to the public sector in pay – teeing up for a battle with the unions. Economists say that today’s poor GDP statistics are not an aberration and are likely to continue. If the OBR scores down its forecast for economic growth Reeves is headed for another clanger of a budget…