Chris Leslie MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, responding to today’s public sector finance figures, said:

“These figures are yet another damaging setback for George Osborne.

“Borrowing so far this year is now £3.7 billion higher than the same period last year. George Osborne’s promise to balance the books by next year lies in tatters. As the OBR has said, stagnating wages and too many people in low-paid jobs are leading to more borrowing.

“Labour will balance the books and get the national debt falling as soon as possible in the next Parliament, but we will do so in a fairer way.

“Our economic plan will reverse the £3 billion tax cut for the top one per cent of earners and stop paying the winter fuel allowance to the richest pensioners. We will raise child benefit by just one per cent for two years and cut ministers’ pay by five per cent. And our plan will deliver a recovery for the many not just a few, with the rising living standards and more good jobs we need to get the deficit down.”

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