Chris Leslie MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, responding to a press release from Danny Alexander about spending plans, said:

“These are made up numbers plucked out of the air by Danny Alexander.

"Labour will deliver a surplus on the current budget and falling national debt as soon as possible in the next Parliament, as we said last week. How fast we can go will depend on the state of the economy and public finances we inherit. But we do know that this government is set to borrow £198 billion more than they planned because they choked off the recovery and flatlined our economy for 3 years.

"But the most revealing thing in Danny Alexander’s press release is that he has announced, for the first time, coalition spending plans for 2019/20 and 2020/21. There are no spending plans or forecasts for those years in the Autumn Statement. Has Danny Alexander told his Lib Dem Cabinet colleagues that he has agreed another two years of spending plans with George Osborne?”