Sir Patrick Mcloughlin - P M Q's

[ToraToraTora]

In 2010 when the Tories took office, £1 in £4 of government spending was borrowed, today it is £1 in £34. Anyone still want Labour?

[ToraToraTora]

yes I know the apostrophe is wrong.

[youngmafbog]

Most labour voters dont pay much tax, if any. Therefore they dont care where it comes from.

And the champagne socialists but ideals above any economic sense. Easy to spend other peoples money isn't it.

Interestingly though that shows there is some wriggle room for BoJo in the spending stakes. Makes it easier to borrow short term to stimulate the economy.

[jim360]

It feels a little selective, though, no? I'm not disputing the figure, but the context is that in 2008 there was a global economic crash that more or less forced government borrowing to soar. In the first term of Blair's government, Labour drove borrowing down so low they were able to give some back (something Thatcher also managed to do briefly in the mid'80s), so it's not as if Labour governments are always incapable of managing finances.

https://www.ft.com/content/928f7a7c-666d-11e9-a79d-04f350474d62

[douglas9401]

The bigger picture, reason and facts have no place on this page, Jim.

[anneasquith]

TTT, I know it’s a great record, makes us wonder why ms may is leaving the party .

[Gromit]

2010 was indeed the year that Government borrowing peaked, and the Conservative were in power for most of that year. The Conservatives have continued to borrow in vastly greater quantities in the proceeding 9 years than Labour did in their 9 years prior to the 2010 election. Indeed, Labour made a few years of surplus. It was only in 2017 that the Tories got spending down to Labour’s 2007 level.
Last month Phillip Hammond borrowed £7Billion, the highest level for 4 years.

See for yourself, the borrowing bars on this ONS table are far higher under the Conservatives than they were for Labour (except for 1 year in 2009).

https://www.ons.gov.uk/resource?uri=/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/bulletins/publicsectorfinances/may2019/3a65a33d.png

[dannyk13]

Anne //why ms may is leaving the party .//
She is not leaving, she is going to carry on as a backbencher.

[Old_Geezer]

Not relevant. Situations change, and investing in the future costs more than sitting it out telling everyone they have to put up with austerity.

[ABerrant]

What I see in the OBR table is the Major government steadily reducing the rate of borrowing, Blair continuing that trend for 3 years before a radical reversal (i.e. increasing borrowing) which continues until Gordon "the end of boom and bust" Brown leaves office, at which point Cameron/May steadily reduce the rate of borrowing again.

[maggiebee]

//Most labour voters dont pay much tax, if any. Therefore they dont care where it comes from.//
What an inane statement. Tories seem to be expert at tax dodging if you can believe what you read. By the way, the lack of apostrophes are the original poster's, not mine.

[Gromit]

ABerrant,

Labour from 1997-2009 borrowed £34 Billion.

Conservatives from 2011-present have borrowed £84 Billion.

I have excluded 2010 because power was shared (4 months Labour, 8 months Tory).

[gingejbee]

The OP knows well that, by selecting the right data, one can put one's own spin on any situation.

[dannyk13]

There are lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics holds very true.

[Gromit]

Dannyk13
ONS is Independent of the Conservative And Labour Governments.

[Gromit]

Opps, Gromit can’t read the Graph properly

Labour 1997 - 2009 (12 years) Labour borrowed £290Bn.
2011 - 2019 (9 years) Conservatives borrowed £780Bn.

[Baldric]

// Most labour voters dont pay much tax, if any. Therefore they dont care where it comes from //

I think that's a fair assessment tbh, most Labour voters I am aware of are in low paid jobs if in fact they have one at all.

[maggiebee]

Baldric, I might have expected that comment from the OP but certainly not from you. Can you back up this statement with figures?

[hereIam]

That's generalising somewhat, surely ?

[Baldric]

Maggie, I can only speak as I find, I'm talking about people I know and as far as I know there are no statistics for my acquaintances.

[Gromit]

Baldric

Labour voters pay less or no tax, and most of them are unemployed - Easily the daftest statement on here for a while.

Labour got 13 million votes in the 2017 General Election. Unemployment is 1.3 million. Even if you assumed that every one of the 1.3 million voted Labour (which I very much doubt) that still leaves 90% of Labour voters who are not jobless, and are tax paying.
And of course, taxing low paid workers causes more of an impact on peoples quality of life than taxing the comfortably off.