George Osborne puts Labour ‘on the spot’ with law to enshrine budget surpluses

George Osborne is making his first big move as Chancellor in this Parliament. In his Mansion House speech tonight, he will announce a ‘new settlement’ for the economy: a permanent commitment to running budget surpluses in normal times. Osborne will point to the Tories’ election victory as the mandate to enshrine this commitment in law:

‘The result of this recent British election – and the comprehensive rejection of those who argued for more borrowing and more spending – gives our nation the chance to entrench a new settlement.

‘In the budget we will bring forward this strong new fiscal framework to entrench this permanent commitment to that surplus, and the budget responsibility it represents. This fiscal framework will be voted on by the House of Commons later this year, and assessed by the Office for Budget Responsibility we created.’

What is Osborne up to? This will undoubtedly be a contentious move, with his opponents likely to label him as an ideologue obsessed with cutting debt. The