Party Lines: October 26th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

Today’s political news has focussed on today’s announcement that the UK economy grew by a higher than expected 0.8% between July and September. Labour figures have been commenting on the news today – with Alan Johnson pleased to see growth in the economy (whilst warning of underlying risks) and Alistair Darling accusing the Tories of “scaremongering. In London, Boris Johnson is facing calls to deny that there will be front line police cuts. Meanwhile, Peter Mandelson returned to the fray in an interview on the Today Programme…

Alan Johnson welcomed today’s growth figures in an interview with the BBC, but pointed to underlying risks to the economy caused by coalition policies:

“There’s no sign yet of the kind of momentum in the private sector that we need to actually create the 2.5m jobs that the OBR is suggesting are necessary to actually come out of this with increases in employment. All the signs are very bad on that. You saw the housing figures yesterday where we see the lowest level of mortgage lending for 10 years, for a decade. So, there’s no demand out there.”

Later, Johnson released a statement which sought to turn the screw on the Tories – in particular on construction spending:

“Today’s figures show that growth has slowed in third quarter of this year. They also show that momentum remains from Labour’s support for the economy – especially the construction sector.”

“The risk going forward is that the Government has a plan to cut one million jobs, but no plan to support the private sector in replacing them. Yes the deficit needs to be reduced – but it needs to be at a pace that the private sector can manage.”

Former chancellor Alistair Darling also appeared on the BBC today to accuse the Tories of “scaremongering” the public into thinking that Britain is in a worse financial situation than it is:

“The figures today finally nail this nonsense about us being like Greece or whatever. I never believed we were at risk of being treated like Ireland, Greece and Portugal. That was nonsense spouted by the Tories to scare people before the cuts.”

“The economy is in better shape than we thought at the time of the election but now they have chosen their path and it is a dangerous one. It is obviously good that the economy is growing but this is largely due to measures put in place in the past couple of years.”

Boris Johnson today faced calls to explain whether there will be cuts to frontline police officers and local police teams in London, after a letter from a senior Metropolitan Police officer (Detective Chief Superintendent Neil Basu, Barnet Borough Commander) revealed that there will be, “a reduction in police and police staff numbers” and that, “Safer Neighbourhood Teams may reduce in size in the short term.” Responding to today’s letter, Labour’s candidate for Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, said:

“Boris Johnson has repeatedly denied there will be any impact on frontline policing or that there will be cuts to safer neighbourhood teams and just last week the Deputy Mayor for Policing claimed, ‘we will be able to protect the frontline and maybe put more people on the frontline.”

“This letter blows that out of the water and shows that the Mayor is planning cuts to the overall number of full time police officers and cuts to the size of the capital’s 630 safer neighbourhood teams.”

Meanwhile shadow home secretary Ed Balls MP warned of the “double whammy” that Londoners will face:

“London now faces a double whammy of cuts to policing. On top of the Mayor’s cuts, the coalition government’s spending review imposes 20% cuts in central government funding for policing. That could mean thousands fewer police officers and Police Community Support Officers across the capital.

“For all their talk before the election, the Tories and Lib Dems have failed to prioritise policing and both the Mayor and the Home Secretary are taking big risks with the public’s safety. It’s now left to the Labour Party to stand up for the law-abiding majority against these reckless cuts.”

And Peter Mandelson returned to the fray this morning, and used an interview with the Today programme to express his support for the government’s welfare reforms – although he cautioned that they are focussed too heavily on deficit reduction:

“On welfare reform I happen to support in essence what the government is proposing to do, continuing our reforms. At times like this it is all the more important to carry on reforms that maintain value for money, productivity and accountability.”

“I think they are facing up to some very difficult decisions. I think they’re handling the politics and the presentation reasonably.”

“But I also think they’re in danger of becoming one-club golfers, concentrating on deficit reduction regardless of anything else, just as concentrating on fighting inflation with monetarist policies in the 1980s did us long-term damage then.”