BUDGET: Harman hits out at "reckless Budget"
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Labour party deputy leader Harriet Harman has slammed the Government’s emergency Budget saying it will stifle growth, making it harder to cut the deficit.
She told the House of Commons: “The Chancellor says his top priority is cutting the deficit. But in order to get the deficit down you need to keep economic growth up and you need to keep unemployment down.
“Today’s Budget is bad for growth and that will make it harder to cut the deficit.”
Harman said the proposed spending cuts will hit the private sector as well as the public sector and adds it is a “reckless Budget which pulls the rug out from under the economy”.
But she said Labour supports the increase in capital gains tax, welcomes the retention of the 50p tax rate and supports the banking levy.
Harman slammed the LibDems, saying they have let voters down by allowing the Conservatives to push forward with tough cuts.
She said: “The VAT rise makes this a budget of broken promises. Before the election the prime minister said he had no plans to put up VAT. And now in his first budget he puts up VAT.
“During the election campaign the LibDems attacked what they called the Tory secret VAT bombshell. Little did we know that the LibDems had their own secret bombshell to drop on us - that they would vote for it.
“How can they now support everything they were against? How could they let down all the people who voted for them?”
She said Business Secretary Vince Cable has changed from “a national treasure to a Treasury poodle” in the last few weeks.
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Readers' comments (8)
A Mack | 22 Jun 2010 2:10 pm
Of course she is going to slam the budget. She cannot let on that Labour have been so bad for the country over the years they have been in power. Also, that is all Labour politicians can do! They are unable to see that they have damaged the country and the only way they know how to talk is stridently and debasing anything anyone else would want to do. In short, Labout are bully boys!
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Rob | 22 Jun 2010 2:18 pm
It m ust be said that this woman is an utter waste of space and oxygen. What else could she say; other than i am deepely sorry for being complicit in the appalling manner in which the country has been managed over the Brown Premiership and for leaving the UK with record peace time debts. What an absolute cretin she really is.
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John Cowan | 22 Jun 2010 2:37 pm
has anyone noticed that labour constantly shout and scream about what other people do but seldom come up with a sensible plan to put forward instead! I wish these people would stop doing all the back office deals and posturing, designed to prolong their political life and get on with their jobs!!!!!
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Philip Curnow | 22 Jun 2010 4:37 pm
Absolutley right Harriet ! . . . we should carry on with the wonderful financial management that you supported so completley under Mr Brown and fiends . . .. Borrow more money, give great big wads of it to unproductive people and print more Pounds - and carry on hoping that nobody out there in other countries realises that the Labour Sterling Currency is not worth the paper it was being printed on . . . . I am sure that we, as a country, could have gotten away with that sort of "Con", for another few weeks - perhaps a month or two - before we ended up like Greece . . . Oh ? What's that I hear ? You actually left our finances worse than Greece ? . . . well just be thankfull someone has the guts and brains to start correcing your incompetence !
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Anonymous | 22 Jun 2010 5:04 pm
With all the comments about leaving the country with huge peace time debts etc, lets remember that Govt borrowing is a symptom of a much larger problem. That of tax avoidance & evasion. Is it not reasonable to assume that had Govt revenues been higher the level of borrowing might have reduced. Perhaps people should be wary of the bigger picture before tarring others with the proverbial brush. Those amongst us who are fortunate enough to receive large incomes might want to think about actually paying the correct level of tax instead of working out ways to hide things from the State. The same State they'd rely on should they fall on hard times themselves. No one is innocent in all this. She is a waste of space though...
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Blair Cann | 22 Jun 2010 5:17 pm
Wow - and there was I thinking I might be the only person who felt that Ms H was useless, trite and unable to fully understand any of the many briefs she has been given in government(or in opposition it seems).
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FC | 22 Jun 2010 5:42 pm
Mother Harman has a nerve. She and all the rotten Labour governments since 1997 have just about destroyed the UK finances. Don't lecture us on the pace of recovery dear, apologise to us all we have anything to recover from.
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Mr Fisher | 23 Jun 2010 12:10 pm
Me thinks she protests too much -
If the debt was not driven so high by 13 years of waste and greed and sheer incompetence then it would not have had to be.
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