Philip Hammond says Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell ‘is not being straight’ about Labour’s spending plans
Chancellor claims opposition is pretending they won't have to make cuts
PHILIP Hammond will today accuse Labour’s John McDonnell of not being “straight” with Brits over Labour borrowing.
Finally taking the fight to Labour over the economy, the Chancellor will claim Labour’s spending splurge plans would trigger £6bn of extra debt interest repayments a year.
More than 140 MPs have now written to the Shadow Chancellor to demand answers on how Labour will pay the interest on the extra debt.
Analysis of Labour’s spending plans show by the end of this Parliament public sector debt would be £250billion higher under Labour than the Tories.
This would mean Labour spending £5.8bn a year more in debt interest payments.
That’s equal to the pay of 65,000 nurses, 56,000 teachers and 53,ooo police officers.
Chancellor Philip Hammond said Labour’s spending splurge would push up borrowing costs with even more cash being spent on servicing debt.
He said: “As their £100 billion-pound broken promise on student debt shows, Labour aren’t being straight with the British public.
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"Labour would take out an enormous loan, but are pretending they wouldn’t have to make cuts elsewhere to pay for it.
“Families, and working people everywhere know that’s not how it works; when you take out a loan you have to pay interest on it, and that means making tough decisions on where to cut back elsewhere.”
A Labour spokesman said: “This is silly season nonsense from the Tories.
“We will take no lessons from a Tory party that could not even tell us how much their own manifesto cost. As the IFS and Nobel prize winning economists can explain to the hapless Tory Chancellor, Labour will invest in order to provide the growth our economy desperately needs."