Labour attacks three years of economic failure as cost-of-living crisis continues across Britain

Labour will today attack the government’s economic policies for failing on their own terms as the party highlights the growing cost-of-living crisis across Britain. A week before the Autumn Statement, Labour will use an Opposition Day Debate to say that on living standards, economic growth and the deficit, the government has failed to meet the goals they set in 2010. And with prices still rising faster than wages, Labour will highlight figures showing that average earnings have fallen in real terms in every part of the UK since 2010. London, Yorkshire and the Humber, the North West, Wales and the East of England have seen the biggest falls.  Chris Leslie MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: “On every economic test David Cameron and George Osborne set themselves three years ago they have failed.

“Far from delivering rising living standards, working people are now over £1600 a year worse off under this government.

“Instead of securing the recovery in 2010 we’ve had three damaging years of flatlining. And we’ll need 1.5 per cent growth every quarter between now and the election simply to catch up all the lost ground since 2010. “David Cameron’s pledge to balance the books by 2015 looks set to be broken because we’ve had the slowest recovery for 100 years. In fact, this government has now borrowed more in just three years than the last government did over 13 years. “And as for being all in this together, the average working person has been left worse off while people earning over £150,000 have got a huge tax cut” Chris Leslie MP added: “It’s about time we had some more positive forecasts, which we should get next week. But the last three years of flatlining and failure mean George Osborne’s plan is still totally off track compared to what he promised in 2010. “And it’s ordinary working people, who are still seeing prices rising faster than wages, who are carrying the cost of this failure. “For most families this is still no recovery at all. That’s why we need action in the Autumn Statement to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and ensure economic recovery delivers rising living standards for all, is balanced and built to last.”