Coalition plans “risk choking off recovery”

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Speaking today in Parliament, shadow chancellor Alistair Darling said that government plans run the risk of being “blind to the need to secure growth.”

Defending Labour’s record on the economy, and echoing a line used regularly thoughout the general election campaign, Darling said that:

“(the coalition) has sought to lay the blame on the previous government”

“It is very, very important that we don’t get ourselves into a situation of almost competitive austerity, where governments and countries become blind to the need to secure growth.”

Darling, who has already stated that he wishes to return to the back benches after shadow cabinet elections, used todays appearance in Parliament as an opportunity to respond to criticism of his economic management, and to challenge Tory claims that Labour is solely responsible for the level of national debt,

“The idea that the Conservative Party was behaving in a way that would have meant there wasn’t any borrowing.. is absolute nonsense.”

Hat tip Politics Home