Darling calls on Osborne to find economic Plan B
ALISTAIR Darling yesterday called on George Osborne to find a Plan B for the economy or cause “immeasurable” damage to the country.
“It’s as if you’re both saying there’s nothing you can do and nature must take its course,” the former chancellor wrote in an open letter published in The People. “You really must act. And act now. Otherwise it will take years to get Britain’s economy growing again to create the jobs we need.”
But a source in the Treasury told City A.M. that Darling was “behind the curve”. “Alistair Darling oversaw the creation of this deficit in the first place, alongside Gordon Brown. We are spending several billion more on capital investment than the Darling plans we inherited.”
“The Bank of England evidence suggests quantitative easing is working, while the funding for lending scheme is already having an impact on reducing mortgage rates and the cost of borrowing,” they added.
An official Treasury spokesman said: “What would damage Britain’s credit worthiness would be relaxing our resolve to deal with our debts. We won’t do that.”