Opponents of austerity selfish, says Cameron

DAVID Cameron hit out at ‘selfish’ critics of austerity last night as he urged Theresa May to press on with tackling the deficit.

In a rare intervention, the former prime minister took a swipe at Cabinet figures such as Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, who have called for a rethink on public sector pay in recent days.

Speaking at a conference in South Korea, he said it was too soon to ‘let spending and borrowing rip’ – and warned that easing up on austerity now would penalise future generations and leave the economy vulnerable to economic shocks.

The Government has been rocked by splits over the public sector pay cap in recent days, with Chancellor Philip Hammond forced to slap down a string of Cabinet ministers who have called for it to be relaxed.

Mrs May is expected to face further challenges over the issue at Prime Minister’s Questions today.

But Mr Cameron urged her to stay the course on austerity. ‘The opponents of so-called austerity couch their arguments in a way that makes them sound generous and compassionate,’ he said.

‘They seek to paint the supporters of sound finances as selfish or uncaring. The exact reverse is true.

‘Giving up on sound finances isn’t being generous, it’s being selfish – spending money today that you may need tomorrow.’

His remarks came during a speech to the Asia Leadership Conference in Seoul, for which he is thought to have received a five-figure fee.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Mr Cameron’s comments ‘further show how out of touch he was then, and still remains today’.

But former Tory chancellor Lord Lawson said that failure to control public spending would lead to ‘economic disaster’.

He warned Cabinet ministers they were undermining the Government by airing their differences so publicly, adding: ‘We should stop having this debate in public, it’s ludicrous.’

Lord Lawson said it was not impossible for the pay cap to be lifted but that restraint should be maintained. ‘Once you lose control, as the last Labour government did...you have an economic disaster,’ he said.

Despite the seven-year pay cap, public sector pay has fallen more slowly than in the private sector.

A report by the Office of Manpower Economics yesterday found that while real wages in the public sector were squeezed by 3.1 per cent from 2005 to 2015, those in the private sector fell by an average of 6.1 per cent.

The Cabinet splits over public sector pay have emerged since Mrs May was left weakened by last month’s election result.

Last night, Tory sources told the Daily Mail that Mrs May had been forced to give her former leadership rival Andrea Leadsom the freedom to take a high-profile media stance after she threatened to quit the Cabinet when moved from environment secretary to become Leader of the Commons.

‘It would lead to economic disaster’