Shadow Chancellor: I can’t work out cost of Labour’s borrowing
‘He doesn’t do numbers’
JOHN McDonnell yesterday tried to blame ‘trite’ journalism after he was unable to say how much Labour’s plans to borrow billions of pounds would cost Britain.
The Shadow Chancellor was asked nine times in a radio interview about the spiralling interest payments his party might saddle the country with.
In an excruciating exchange, a flustered Mr McDonnell claimed he did not know the details because he needed his iPad or an adviser to tell him.
The Marxist told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘The type of journalism where you go into an interview and someone asks you a question on a particular figure, to be honest, is a trite form of journalism.That’s why we have iPads, and that’s why I have advisers, etc.’
The Tories last night warned that his inability to come clean about the cost of Labour’s planned borrowing binge showed why the party is not fit to govern. Mr McDonnell and Jeremy Corbyn have trumpeted plans to pump £500billion into infrastructure if they get into Downing Street.
But yesterday the Shadow Chancellor could not say how much more it would cost to service the national debt as a result of his plans for extra borrowing.
He said the financial impact would be ‘minimal’ as he claimed the projects would pay for themselves through increased employment and tax revenue.
Pressed repeatedly on how the debt mountain would grow under a Labour government, Mr McDonnell said borrowing was needed to pay for essential work like house-building. He said: ‘Immediately that infrastructure puts more people back into work, they pay their taxes and as a result of that you are able to cover your costs.’
Asked again how much his borrowing plans would cost in an interview on BBC 5 Live half an hour later, Mr McDonnell still appeared clueless. He was asked yet again in a Commons debate about the Budget and once more could not offer any specifics.
Economic Secretary to the Treasury Steve Barclay last night said Labour was ‘refusing to come clean’. He added: ‘Labour would add hundreds of billions more to the country’s debt, meaning higher taxes on workers and less money for our schools and hospitals.’ Mel Stride, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury and Paymaster General, added: ‘Labour have a Shadow Chancellor who doesn’t do numbers – which gets to the heart of why they are not fit to govern.
‘ On many occasions, John McDonnell has demonstrated a lack of economic understanding, and in reality Labour’s enormous borrowing binge just means higher taxes, fewer jobs and stifling debt.’
Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said: ‘It’s worrying that the Shadow Chancellor hasn’t done his sums. Or perhaps he has done his sums and he realises they’re so horrendous that he’s unwilling to acknowledge that his version of a Labour government would put the country into financial difficulties.’ Britain’s colossal debt mountain has cost taxpayers £520billion in interest payments alone since the UK last balanced the books nearly 20 years ago.
Increased borrowing since the country was last in surplus in 200001 has pushed the national debt up nearly six-fold from £317billion to £1.8trillion.
TRADITIONALLY, the day after the Budget is when the hidden nasties emerge. But so far Philip Hammond appears to have sensibly avoided burying bad news (though that didn’t stop the BBC being relentlessly downbeat in its coverage of an economy that has a record number of people in work and has outperformed most of Europe by a country mile).
Instead, it was his opposite number John McDonnell who unravelled in the face of basic questions about his spending plans.
Asked on the BBC how much it costs to service Britain’s debt, and how much this would rise due to Labour’s planned borrowing binge, he had no answer.
Instead, he called Mishal Husain’s impressive interrogation ‘trite’ journalism and added, with terrifying insouciance: ‘That’s why we have iPads and that’s why we have advisers.’
Then, betraying the economic illiteracy which is now his hallmark, Mr McDonnell blithely claimed his spending spree was ‘investment’ and so would ‘pay for itself’.
Truly, he is like a loan shark who wants to con customers into thinking more debt will improve their lives, then leaves them in devastating penury.
One thing’s sure: if this dangerous man ever becomes chancellor, he will need not just one but a forest of magic money trees.