Labour’s Field: Party must apologise for debt legacy

UK Political Editor

Wednesday 12 October 2011

ED Miliband came under fire last night from crusading backbencher Frank Field, who insisted his party leader should apologise unreservedly for Labour leaving the UK economy in a mess.

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MICHAEL SETTLE UK POLITICAL EDITOR

To add to Mr Miliband’s woes, another former Labour minister, Charles Clarke, dismissed Labour’s Plan B for the economy as unconvincing.

The double broadside came as Prime Minister David Cameron’s administration braces itself today for the latest jobless figures, which could show youth unemployment topping one million for the first time.

This afternoon, Labour will launch a full frontal attack on the Coalition’s economic policy after British business leaders yesterday warned the economy risked slipping back into recession after barely growing in the quarter to September.At Westminster, Mr Field, the former welfare minister who was brought into Government to think the unthinkable, argued that Labour would not be able to move on until it had said sorry for building up a record deficit in office.Asked if Labour should acknowledge a share of the blame for the financial crisis, the maverick MP for Birkenhead said: “We have got to become much clearer about our responsibilities in this. When we have, we will be surprised at how easy it was to give an apology that is not qualified in any way.”Mr Field was asked whether Ed Balls, the Shadow Chancellor, who has been calling on the Coalition to adopt a Plan B of slower and shallower cuts, should apologise.He replied: “The whole of the Opposition should and we would accompany such an apology by saying that, of course, at every move of borrowing we were encouraged by the now Conservative Government in trying to match that. So there’s guilt all round on that. But we won’t move on until we make that very clear apology without reservations to the British people.”Elsewhere, Mr Clarke, former Labour home secretary, said Labour had failed to come across strongly with an alternative to the Coalition’s policies.“The economic proposition that Labour puts at the moment is unconvincing,” said Mr Clarke, noting: “I didn’t think there was coherence, let’s put it politely, in what Ed Miliband was saying.”The former Norwich MP noted how the Coalition had come up with agreements on deficit reduction that people could agree or disagree with.“But you can’t just pretend you’re not on that agenda and I don’t think Labour has succeeded in saying it is on that agenda and so we are simply dismissed by most people thinking about the most central question facing the country today, which is the economy.”Mr Clarke said Mr Miliband had done well in changing his Shadow Cabinet, insisting it was a better team.Last night, the Tories seized on Mr Field’s and Mr Clarke’s remarks.On the former, Tory backbencher Matthew Hancock said: “It’s absolutely right Labour and Ed Balls apologise for creating this appalling mess that this Government is now having to clear up.“Until they come up with a credible economic plan rather than just more debt and spending, the country will never take them seriously again.”On the latter, Baroness Warsi, the Conservative co-chairwoman, said: “I can’t help but agree that Ed Miliband is a weak, unconvincing and visionless leader. Charles Clarke is right. Labour offers no credible plan for the economy, just a Plan B for bankruptcy.”Yesterday, the British Chambers of Commerce said Britain’s economy risked slipping back into recession after barely growing in the third quarter as data showed manufacturers were running out of steam and as consumers struggled to make ends meet.Meanwhile, the monthly estimates from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research were brighter, suggesting GDP grew 0.5% in the three months to September.However, the think-tank pointed out the level of GDP in the period was still 4% below the pre-recession peak, meaning the UK recovery was the weakest since the First World War.Speaking ahead of today’s debate on the economy called by Labour, Rachel Reeves, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said: “With families feeling the squeeze, no growth in our economy since last autumn and unemployment rising again, it’s clear Britain now faces a real jobs and growth crisis.“With families feeling the squeeze, more people on the dole and borrowing set to be £46 billion higher than planned, Britain can’t afford to carry on with a reckless Tory plan that is hurting but not working.”

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Labour’s Field: Party must apologise for debt legacy

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