Balls says sorry over failure to curb banks

The shadow chancellor told Labour’s annual conference that delegates should be proud of many of Labour’s achievements in office, including the minimum wage, civil partnerships and “saving” the NHS. But he said where mistakes were made, governments should be “grown up” about them, adding: “We should put our hands up, learn from the past and explain how we will do things differently in the future.

“So, Conference, we should have had tougher rules on immigration from Eastern Europe – it was a mistake not to have transitional controls in 2004, and we must change the rules in the future.”

He added: “And, Conference, while it was the banks which caused the global recession, and it was the global recession which caused deficits to rise here in Britain and around the world, the truth is we should have regulated those banks in a tougher way.

“It was a mistake. We should apologise for it. And I do.

“As we get the deficit down, we must reform our banks for the future so that can never happen again.

“We didn’t do enough to tackle the underlying causes of rising spending on housing benefit and in-work poverty.

“So the next Labour government will raise the minimum wage, build more homes to get the housing benefit bill down and cap overall spending on social security.”

The CBI gave a lukewarm reaction to the speech, saying that “business wasn’t looking for any surprises” and that the steady growth message was appreciated.

John Cridland, CBI Director-General, said: “Balancing the books is a given for whoever is in Government next, so the business community will be reassured by Mr Balls reaffirming Labour’s commitment to fiscal discipline.”

Comment: Page 10; Opinion: Page 11.