MPs and voters turn on Osborne

The Treasury received some bad news today, so it sent out Chloe Smith to respond instead of her boss George Osborne. The economic secretary made the same point as Fraser about Labour’s alternative strategy when she responded to the latest borrowing figures this afternoon. She said:

‘Their strategy would be to borrow more and to spend more and we cannot take that kind of decision in these circumstances.’

But she then added:

‘What these figures really show is the importance of sticking to the plan that has won Britain international credibility.’

The ‘international credibility’ line is quite interesting as presumably Smith is referring to Britain’s credit rating, which Danny Alexander said recently was ‘not the be-all and end-all’. Her line does not have support from members of her own party, either. John Redwood wrote a blog today which criticised ‘uncompetitive rates’ of tax:

If the government keeps increasing spending at this rate, there will be too much borrowing.