Labour

£2.3bn 4G auction another blow to Osborne's failing economic plan - Reeves

Rachel Reeves MP, Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, responding to the 4G auction raising just £2.3 billion, said:

“This is yet another blow to George Osborne’s failing economic plan. It shows how foolish and short-termist the Chancellor was to bank this cash in the autumn statement to make his borrowing figures look less bad. He couldn’t bring himself to admit that borrowing was up so far this year but his trickery has now badly backfired.

“We will need to look out for more smoke and mirrors when tomorrow’s borrowing figures are published. The only fair way to judge what is happening to the public finances will be to exclude the short-term transfer of money from the Bank of England’s quantitative easing scheme.

“Whatever wheezes George Osborne tries, he cannot hide from the fact that no growth on his watch has led to billions more borrowing as the costs of economic failure mount. Instead of more accounting trickery what we really need from this Chancellor is action to kick-start our flatlining economy.”