Conservatives publish claims on Labour's "reckless spending"

The Conservatives can today reveal the true cost of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party – the figures that John McDonnell did not want people to see. In total, Corbyn’s Labour has committed to an additional spending splurge of £1.2 trillion over the next five years if they get elected.

Labour plans amount to increasing Government spending by 30%, this is three times more than even Gordon Brown increased the size of the state by, after the financial crisis.

This extra spending – an extra £650 million a day – is the equivalent of funding the entire NHS budget for nine years.

When taken over a five-year period – the expected length of the next Parliament – Labour’s 2017 Manifesto costs over £600 billion. Since then, they’ve made even more reckless promises, loading another £590 billion onto the taxpayer. This is on top of what the Government already spends.

Commitments included in these figures are:

• Renationalising rail, energy networks, water and postal services: £196 billion
• A 32-hour working week: £85 billion
• Piloting a Universal Basic Income – a free-for-all handout to everyone including prisoners and the super-rich: £4.5 billion
• Guaranteeing all energy workers a job – such as those working in the oil and gas industry: £8.7 billion
• Setting up tenants’ unions across the country: £20 million
• Free bus travel for under 25s: £7 billion
• Home insulation and refurbishments: £30 billion

The full costings have been laid out in a comprehensive dossier which is attached. These staggering costs could increase when Labour publish their manifesto in the coming weeks.

Commenting, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sajid Javid, said:

“Today we can reveal the numbers that Labour did not want you to see: the true ‘Cost of Corbyn’ is a staggering £1.2 trillion.

“Now is the time for responsible investment not reckless borrowing. We simply cannot afford Corbyn’s spending spree that would saddle our children with huge amounts of debt and undo all the hard work of the British people in recent years.

“Every time Labour get into power they spend beyond their means, leaving our country on the brink of bankruptcy.  But Corbyn’s Labour is planning to embark on a record – and truly frightening - spending splurge. We are all still paying the price for the debt that the last Labour Government racked up, but this would be three times worse.

“Corbyn’s plans are the equivalent of scrapping all funding for the NHS for the next nine years. And as one of Corbyn’s most senior allies has warned: ‘the British people will pay for this’.

“A vote for Corbyn’s Labour would mean the chaos of another two referendums and frightening levels of debt that would take us decades to pay off. Only a majority Conservative Government would get Brexit done and spend money sensibly on people’s priorities. We simply cannot afford the cost of Corbyn.”

ENDS

Notes to editors

• A Corbyn government would cost an extra £1.2 trillion. When taken over a five-year period, Labour’s 2017 Manifesto commitments added up to more than £600 billion. Since then, they’ve made over £590 billion of extra spending pledges. This would send debt spiralling and hit the pockets of hardworking taxpayers.

• This is enough to keep our NHS running for nine years. Labour’s extra spending could fund the NHS for nearly a decade. £1.2 trillion is more than the GDP of Denmark, Ireland and Austria combined. It is 60 per cent of the UK’s total GDP. Put another way, that’s £650 million more a day, and almost £5 billion of extra spending every single week.

• Labour’s Manifesto has been costed at £611 billion over the course of a Parliament. This includes spending £196 billion to renationalise vast swathes of our economy, £30 billion to build Crossrail 2 and £20 billion for a National Investment Bank.

• Since their Manifesto, Labour have committed to spending at least £590 billion.

o   Labour have pledged an additional £385 billion for day-to-day spending over the course of a Parliament. This includes crippling our economy by implementing a 32-hour working week, which the Centre for Policy Studies estimates to cost the taxpayer between £17 and £45 billion a year. They would also pilot a Universal Basic Income in three areas – a free-for-all handout to members of society, regardless of their salary – at a cost of nearly £4.5 billion.

o   Labour have pledged an additional £201 billion for capital spending over the course of a Parliament. This includes £30 billion over five years to install energy saving measures ‘in almost all of the UK’s 27 million homes’.

The size of the state would return the country to Labour’s Great Recession

• Labour would increase Government spending by 30 per cent – three times more than Gordon Brown increased the size of the state. This is three times more than Gordon Brown’s spending splurge in the two years after the financial crisis – when he increased the size of the state by 10 per cent (OBR, Public finances databank, 30 September 2019, link).

The deficit would sky rocket

• Labour’s plans would double the deficit. Under Labour’s plans for capital spending the deficit would double, reversing many years of our hard work to bring the nations finances back in order (OBR, Public finances databank, 30 September 2019, link).

It would be hardworking people who paid the price for Labour’s reckless spending plans

• Peter Dowd admitted it would be ‘the British people’ who pay for this spending splurge. STUDIO: ‘Who is going to pay for all this?’ PETER DOWD: ‘Well the British people will pay for this as part of our investment package. It be will be money that we borrow and we will seek to invest that amount of money and the return as a result of a growing economy, more sustainable economy, will ultimately pay for that’ (LBC, 7 November 2019, archived).