The government has published its Charter on Budget Responsibility, which at one stage was supposed to be a Labour trap but which now appears to be something that Labour can have a bit of fun with. In his ‘black cloud’ economy speech this afternoon, David Cameron announced that the Charter ‘would have the structural current budget into balance’ in 2017/18, which appears to enshrine into law the Labour plan that he is attacking in the same speech.
The Prime Minister said:
‘We must finish the job we have started. That is why today, the Government is publishing a new Charter for Budget Responsibility.
‘This will enshrine our commitment to get debt falling as a share of our national output by 2016-17 and to get the structural current budget into balance the following year.
‘And as Conservatives we will achieve an overall budget surplus by 2018-19. This is our plan on the deficit.’
Labour says this is a U-turn from the Charter vote being about the overall deficit to being about the structural current deficit.
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