Tory plans to tackle state deficit ‘vital to restore growth’
Cameron determined to get a grip on public finances
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CONSERVATIVE plans to rein in Britain’s record state deficit are vital to restore economic growth, David Cameron said yesterday.
And Labour was “profoundly wrong” to claim the recovery would be threatened if a Tory administration was elected on a platform of swift cuts in public spending to bring the £170billion deficit under control.
Mr Cameron warned that the government risked tipping the UK back into recession by failing to get a grip on the public finances, leading to falling confidence in the country’s credit-worthiness, higher interest rates, higher unemployment and lower investment.
The Tory leader, speaking to the CBI conference in London, said dealing with the deficit was “the most pressing question” for government.
He cited the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, which said last week that the government could strengthen the recovery by developing “more ambitious fiscal consolidation plans early”. Similar approaches, he said, were now being advocated by the CBI itself and by US President Barack Obama.
“There is a growing international and domestic consensus that urgent action is vital to recovery,” said Mr Cameron.
“It’s now vital that Alistair Darling uses the opportunity of the pre-Budget report to bring this Labour government back to reality and back into the mainframe of international and domestic opinion with a credible fiscal plan.”
The idea that dealing promptly with the fiscal deficit would damage the recovery was “profoundly wrong”, said Mr Cameron. “Dealing with this deficit is not an alternative to economic growth — the two go hand in hand.”
