Shadow minister slams Osborne for failing to deal with economic “fundamentals”

Seema Malhotra, shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has slammed George Osborne for failing to deal with the “fundamentals” of the economy.

Speaking on Sky News’s Murnaghan, Malhotra said the country isn’t in better shape under the current government and that Chancellor George Osborne is “not doing what is needed to ensure Britain is best placed to withstand a future shock”.

“Osborne has failed to deal with the fundamentals,” says MP @SeemaMalhotra1 regarding UK economy #Murnaghan https://t.co/swPjUjsue0

— Murnaghan (@SkyMurnaghan) February 14, 2016

Malhotra said Osborne had failed on the fundamentals such as investment and improving productivity. She noted that in 2010 Osborne had inherited an economy that was growing and now “we’ve seen a slowdown”.

This intervention comes after it has been reported that Labour preparing to unveil their economic narrative ahead of the next budget. A document seen by The Observer suggests that Labour is planning to pursue a “fiscal responsibility plan” devised by Oxford economic Simon Wren-Lewis.

Under these plans Labour would propose a strategy to “guarantee that all cuts announced for this parliament could be reversed in full”. The party would also highlight that investment is key to growth.

The document’s author highlight the importance of developing an economic narrative:

“The fact that austerity is widely perceived by much of the public as sound economic policy should tell us that credibility on the economy is less a question of technical expertise, as it is of having a convincing story.”

“Our major error on economic policy between 2010 and 2015 was to think that technical competence (backed up by economic theory) would be enough to secure us the public trust on the economy. This belief prevented us establishing a clear and consistent narrative for Labour’s approach to the economy.