Public borrowing figures prove Osborne's economic plan has failed, says TUC

20 March 2015

Commenting on the publication today (Friday) by the Office for National Statistics of the latest public sector borrowing figures, which suggest the deficit will be nearly three times larger than the Chancellor’s original target for this year, TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“With gobsmacking audacity, the Chancellor claimed this week that his economic plan has worked. But today’s figures are a timely reminder of the truth, which is that he’ll run a deficit £50 billion deeper this year than he originally planned.  

“The Chancellor is borrowing so much more because his plan failed. And his plan failed because wages stagnated, leading to the longest decline in living standards since Queen Victoria was on the throne.

“This has left the public finances in a mess because he hasn’t collected nearly as much income tax and national insurance as he thought he would.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- Analysis undertaken for the TUC by IPPR Trading Limited and published earlier this month found that the Chancellor has a shortfall of £33bn in income tax and national insurance receipts as a consequence of the stagnation of wages since 2010. The full report The living standards tax gap: a future risk to the public finances can be found at https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/Thelivingstandardstaxgap.pdf

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

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Contacts:

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Clare Santry  T: 020 7467 1372  M: 07717 531150  E: csantry@tuc.org.uk
Kay Atwal  T: 020 7467 1385  M: 07941 547469  E: katwal@tuc.org.uk