---

Comprehensive Spending Review

I will give way in a few moments. As we have heard this morning, Ministers claim that the economic crisis was caused by the Labour Government through reckless spending and excessive borrowing, but they can back up neither that claim, nor the coalition’s claim that there is no alternative to the path they have embarked upon. It is time to tackle those myths head-on. Let us start by looking at the picture before the global financial crisis hit, starting with debt. International Monetary Fund figures show that in 2007 British Government debt as a proportion of GDP was below that of France, Germany, the USA, Japan and even Switzerland. In 2013 it is still forecast to be below that of France, the USA and Japan. There was no decade of debt. That is a Tory myth. In fact, the Labour Government had been paying down debt; public sector net debt fell from 42% of GDP in 1996-97, left by the Conservatives, to 36% in 2006-07, before the global financial crisis. That 6% reduction is worth around £90 billion.