Alex Burghart accuses Labour of pretending financial problems don’t exist after IFS issues warning

The Conservative Deputy Leader has accused Labour of being “deeply irresponsible” over the state of the nation’s finances after the IFS think tank said they were “one bad roll of the dice” away from serious trouble.

Speaking on GB News, he said: “I think whatever one thinks about the Conservatives’ time in office, the fact that we had the biggest deficit when we came in, we were dealing with the fallout from the biggest financial crisis in a century. We then had the biggest constitutional crisis in about a century. We then had the biggest pandemic in about a century, and the largest war in Europe since 1945, but actually the figures were pretty good as we were leaving office.

“And now, after two and a half years of Labour being in power, it can’t blame anybody else anymore. They are borrowing at a really terrifying rate. And what I think is dangerous and depressing about what we saw today is that they’re pretending that the problem isn’t there, and that is extremely foolish.

“And the head of the IFS said today they are one bad roll of the dice away from being in serious trouble. That’s deeply irresponsible and if that one bad roll of the dice happens, that’s something that everyone is going to pay for.

“They’ve already started paying for Labour’s mismanagement of the economy since Rachel Reeves. I’m afraid that things could be about to get very much worse.

“We’re reaching post-war highs now. The machinery is starting to shake, and things must change. That’s why Andrew Griffith, the Shadow Chancellor, has set out how we would very significantly reduce public expenditure.

“Half of that money would go to reducing the deficit, and half of the money would go to tax cuts, so that we could have both stability and growth. I think that is by far the most responsible thing that can be done.”