7. 5. Welsh Conservatives Debate: The Autumn Statement

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:40 pm on 7 December 2016.

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Photo of Mark Isherwood Mark Isherwood Conservative 4:40, 7 December 2016

Continuing the trend of recent years, the UK economy is predicted to be the fastest major growing economy in the world this year with 2.1 per cent growth forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility. The OBR also forecast that the deficit will fall to 3.5 per cent of GDP this year and 0.7 per cent in 2021, the lowest in two decades, and that debt as a proportion of national income will begin falling in 2018-19 for the first time since 2001-02. However, the Labour Welsh Government spending machine measures success by how much spent not how well and continues to whinge about austerity rather than acknowledge that this was an inheritance not a choice, being defined by how much money you have to spend. They never complained when the previous Labour UK Government pursued light touch financial regulation, ignoring years of warnings that the UK banking system was more exposed to sub-prime debt than anywhere else in the world. [Interruption.] Labour left the UK with the second highest deficit amongst OECD countries and its biggest budget deficit in peacetime history. They still fail to acknowledge that if you have high debt, someone else owns you and that the alternative would generate bigger cuts. I give way.