Cameron: Labour should be ashamed of UK's finances - VIDEO

TORY leader David Cameron said Labour should be "ashamed" of the state of the nation's finances as he attacked the Budget proposals announced by Alistair Darling today.

The Chancellor announced borrowing would be reduced by 11 billion this year but Mr Cameron said at 167 billion it is more than every Labour government in history added together had borrowed.

Responding to the Budget in the Commons Mr Cameron said the centrepiece policy of raising the stamp duty threshold to 250,000 was borrowed from the Tories and all Labour could offer was "debt, waste and taxes".

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Mr Cameron said Economic Secretary to the Treasury Ian Pearson had already "torpedoed" the stamp duty change by saying it "would not be an effective use of public money".

The Tories had also announced plans to increase duty on super-strength cider but the Chancellor's spokesman had claimed that would be "illegal".

Mr Cameron said: "The only new ideas in British politics are coming on this side of the House and the only thing that Labour are bringing are debt, waste and taxes."

He continued: "The Chancellor spoke for an hour but he could have done it all in a sentence - Labour have made a complete mess of the British economy and they are doing nothing to clean it up."

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The national debt has doubled and is set to double again, he said.

"In this year, an election year, they are borrowing 167 billion. We are supposed to be impressed that it has turned out a few billion lower than the last disastrous forecast but it is still, and Honourable Members should be ashamed of this, more than every single Labour government in history has ever borrowed added up together."

He added: "Like every Labour government before them, they have run out of money and they are leaving it to the next Conservative government to clean up the mess."

Mr Cameron said the biggest risk to recovery was five more years of a Labour Government.

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"Five more years of falling confidence, five more years of bloat and debt and taxes, five more years of Britain closed for business."

He referred to Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liam Byrne, who was conversing with Gordon Brown on the front bench, as "Baldemort".

He said: "Get him an espresso or there'll be trouble."

The Chancellor had "boasted" about trade but he did not mention that the trade deficit had actually risen by 7 billion or business investment was falling by 5% this year, Mr Cameron said.

"Almost everything they told us about the economy has turned out not to be true.

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"They told us they would be prudent - this Chancellor has just said that they will be borrowing 734 billion over the next six years, giving us a national debt of 1.3 trillion."

He added: "Next year they are going to be spending more on debt interest than they are going to be on educating our children.

"They told us endlessly they had abolished boom and bust but the figures show they have given us the deepest recession since the war."

Mr Cameron said the Government had promised "real help now" yet more businesses had gone bust in this recession than in any other and more people had gone bankrupt under Labour than ever before in our history.

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The mortgage support scheme, launched in December 2008, had helped only 15 homeowners - equating to 66,000 per household helped.

"Or to put it in currency the Cabinet would understand, that's 13 days of Geoff Hoon's consultancy fees."

One in four adults of working age in the UK were not in work, he added, and the UK had more young people unemployed than anywhere else in Europe.

He told Mr Darling: "There is one forecast you got absolutely spot on. It's when you told that audience of bankers: 'What you, as the City of London, have done for financial services, we as a Government intend to do for the economy as a whole.'

"That is a pledge you met in full."

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UK debt was 350 billion in 1997 and is now 860 billion, he said.

Mr Cameron went on: "The big argument in British politics is this: They say 'Don't do anything before the election, let's just sit tight and keep our fingers crossed'.

"We say we need urgent action to get our economy moving and quickly. We need a credible plan to deal with Britain's record debts starting now and we need to show the world we are back and open for business."

On debt levels, Mr Cameron said: "In four years' time, we will have a deficit almost as big as when Denis Healey went to the IMF in the 1970s."

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He went on to attack Mr Brown for "banging on" about a "global early warning system", adding: "How many more global early warning systems do we need? The lights are flashing, the alarm bells are ringing but he is ignoring them and doing nothing for this country."

He said "every family" knew that when the debts mounted up they had to be paid off.

He added: "The Prime Minister and the Chancellor faced a choice between bold action in an election year and just playing politics. Once again they chose politics.

"This Prime Minister will never get a medal for courage, although it has to be said most of his Cabinet get mentioned in Dispatches."

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Mr Cameron said a "credible plan also requires some honesty, and instead we have got double dealing".

The Government's record on predicting growth had been wrong, as had been shown by previous forecasts, he claimed.

He went on: "You used to have to go through the fine print before you found out rubbish in the Budget, this time the rubbish came straight from the Despatch Box.

"Having given us the lowest decade for growth since the Second World War, they are now predicting one of the highest. They have given us the biggest bust in British history, and now they are forecasting an almost permanent boom.

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"Why on earth should anyone believe what they say any more?"

Mr Cameron said Tory plans for an independent office of budget responsibility would set up independent forecasts and "keep the Chancellor honest".

"We also need to get Britain back open for business and this Budget completely fails the test."

Mr Darling was raising 19 billion of extra taxes, many of them on businesses, and the rise in National Insurance was "a tax on every single job".

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He added: "They want to tax your car, your phone, your business, your jobs. These are the ticking tax bombshells timed to go off after the election that will destroy our recovery."

Mr Cameron said: "This Prime Minister is going round telling everyone 'Stick with me, stick with what you know'. That is the whole problem, this country is stuck with him.

"Our economy is stuck, business is stuck, nothing is moving and there is the arrogance of it. 'Stick with me.' Why? 'Because I doubled the debt, I put up your taxes, I wrecked the economy, I mortgaged your children's future'.

"It's like the captain of the Titanic saying 'Let me command the lifeboats'.

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"It's like Robert Maxwell saying 'Let me reinvest your pension'.

"It's like Richard Nixon saying 'I'm the man to clean up politics".

"Do you really expect the British public to turn round and say: 'Thank you for nearly bankrupting the economy'?"

To Tory cheers, Mr Cameron concluded: "We need an unleashing of enterprise across this nation, we need a plan to boost employment thorough welfare and school reform.

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"It is time this country had a radical change of direction. We need a Conservative government to clean up the mess made by this Labour Government to stop another five years of debt, of waste, of taxes.

"Britain doesn't need this Prime Minister and this Chancellor, it needs new energy, new leadership and values to get this country going again. That is the argument we will take to the country, the moment this man runs out of time and calls that election."