Friday 23rd July 2010 | 10:25

Darling: growth ‘final nail in coffin’ for coalition argument

• 10:25
• 
• • 23/07/10
  • Alistair Darling MP, Former chancellor of the exche...
  • BBC News

Mr Darling said that the UK’s 1.1% growth vindicated his record as Chancellor and provided the “final nail in the coffin” of the government’s argument.

"The figures vindicate my approach, they’re the final nail in the coffin of the argument that things were worse than the new government thought but if they choose to go further they’re gambling with that recovery and I don’t think that’s a risk they should be taking.”

"They’re good figures and it finally nails this argument from the coalition government that somehow things were worse than they expected.  We’ve got faster growth and lower borrowing.”

"The new government is taking a risk if they choose to cut more than we were proposing, to go further and faster, there is a risk that the recovery will be stalled or de-railed and that’s not a risk I believe they should take.”

Mr Darling added that “You’ve got to look at a longer term trend before you draw firm conclusions. Its good that the construction industry has done so well and that’s largely due, I suspect, to the public sector that I bought forward when I was Chancellor.”

“It was working”

Challenged on his own plans for cuts, Mr Darling responded that “I believe the approach that I set out was measured, it was sensible, it was balanced and the evidence today it that it was working.”

"Of course we were going to reduce the deficit which involved cutting some programmes.”

“I said you had to cut the deficit in a way that was sensible in a way that doesn’t de-rail the economy.”

He said that if the economy was to slip into recession “that makes your borrowing and your debt position worse than it otherwise would be”.

Leadership

Mr Darling praised his preferred leadership candidate, David Miliband, for his economic approach and encouraged all contenders to engage with the general public.

“I did hear David Miliband the other day make a very clear case for both supporting the economy and then getting borrowing back down in the way we proposed.”

"All my colleagues in the leadership contest have to talk to the wider electorate, not just the Labour party and say what would they do if they were in charge of the country.”

Sky News, 10.40

Stress Test

Mr Darling responded to today’s European central bank stress test saying they needed to provide a “whole picture”.

“The test today will be are these tests sufficiently rigorous and were they stressful enough to mean we can really be satisfied that banks are adequately capitalised”

“The experience over the last three years that is adequately capitalised, northern rock for example, but unless you take into account that its reliant on American financing then your not getting the whole picture. “

He added that “its got to be a whole picture not just a partial picture.”

Inflation

Mr Darling said he did not share fears of rising inflation.

“The monetary policy committee minutes show that the MPC is having rigorous debate about that. Frankly, I don’t think inflation is the main problem we face.”

“I hope that interest rates will be held at their current rate for some time to come”

‘Vindicated’

Mr Darling attacked the Conservative party and claimed today’s growth figures “vindicate everything we did”.

“You have to remember that the Conservative party opposed all the measures that we took to support the economy, to stop recession turning into depression. They also opposed a large number measures we took to stabilise the banking system. Now I believe that today’s figures vindicate everything we did”,

On the deficit, he added that “you do need to get your borrowing down but you need to do it in a way that is sensible and doesn’t damage the recovery because if you don’t get growth you end up in the situation that Ireland has not got where the credit rating agencies are worried it won’t have the growth to sustain its recovery over the next five or six years”.

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