---

Comprehensive Spending Review

I want to make progress, or no one else will be able to speak. I turn to annual Government borrowing. Britain was not a particularly big borrower before the global financial crisis. In relation to GDP, Government borrowing in 2007-08, just before the crisis, was far lower than during 1996-97, the last year when the Conservatives were in office and the present Secretary of State for Justice was at the Treasury; it was 2.4%, compared with the 3.4% that we inherited from the Conservatives. Labour’s borrowing helped to pay for much higher level of public investment; in fact it was four times as high. Before the global credit crunch, Labour borrowed mainly to invest, whereas in their last year in office the Tories borrowed mainly to meet the weekly wages and benefits bills. In 1996-97, 80% of the Conservative Government’s borrowing went to pay the running costs of public services, not to finance new schools and hospitals or to develop Britain’s road and rail networks. That is the background to the comprehensive spending review that we are debating today.