Labour is losing fiscal credibility 

Just how much longer will the government be able to sustain its assertion that the Conservatives left behind a £22 billion hole in the public finances? Confirmation that ministers are continuing to blame their predecessors for out-of-control public finances – and for expected tax rises in October’s budget – was provided this morning by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Darren Jones, who reacted to July’s grim borrowing figures by stating: 

‘Today’s figures are yet more proof of the dire inheritance left to us by the previous government. A £22 billion black hole in the public finances this year, a decade of economic stagnation, and public debt at its highest level since the 1960s, with taxpayers’ money being wasted on debt interest payments rather than on our public services.’

Much of this is fair comment. The government has indeed inherited dire public finances. The reason that borrowing in July came to £3.1 billion – £1.8