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

“These figures confirm George Osborne is set to break his promise to balance the books by next year. This is the cost of the three damaging years of flatlining and falling living standards we have seen since the election.

“Borrowing is now forecast to be nearly £200 billion more than planned under this Government simply to pay for the costs of their economic failure.

“Labour will balance the books, get the current budget into surplus and the national debt falling as soon as possible in the next Parliament. We will get the deficit down in a fairer way, including by reversing David Cameron’s tax cut for the top one per cent of earners. And we will act to secure a strong and balanced recovery that delivers rising living standards for the many, not just a few at the top.”

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