McDonnell attacked over spending

SHADOW Chancellor John McDonnell was under pressure to come clean about the cost of Labour’s spending plans, amid Tory claims they would add £250billion to the national debt.

In a joint letter today, 147 Conservative MPs challenge Mr McDonnell to set out how he will fund the additional £5.8billion a year in debt interest that Labour’s profligate proposals would create.

The letter says analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies of Labour’s manifesto suggested the national debt would be £106billion higher than under the Tories. But it warns that Jeremy Corbyn has made fresh commitments costing £12.9billion since the election, and says Labour’s nationalisation plans would cost £134billion ‘at the very least’.

The MPs state: ‘The position is clearly untenable. Either you will need to make reductions to public spending in areas which you are yet to identify, raise taxes in areas you have yet to identify, or break the promises you made to the electorate.’

The move underlines a Tory determination to go on the offensive on the economy after an election campaign in which they faced criticism for giving Labour a free ride over its spendthrift plans.

Chancellor Philip Hammond said the cost of servicing Labour’s additional debt would be equivalent to the pay of around 65,000 nurses, 56,000 teachers or 53,000 police officers. He said the U-turn over Mr Corbyn’s pledge to write off student debt showed Labour ‘aren’t being straight with the public’. He added: ‘They would take out an enormous loan, but are pretending they wouldn’t have to make cuts elsewhere to pay for it.’

A Labour spokesman said: ‘We will take no lessons from a Tory party that could not even tell us how much their own manifesto cost.’