Boris Johnson has come under fire for suggesting that the Conservative Party has “tackled the debt and the deficit” left by the last Labour government – despite the fact the national debt has spiralled to almost £1.8 trillion since 2010.
Johnson used his first speech as prime minister at the Tory’s annual conference in Manchester to defend the party’s record in office.
He told crowds on Wednesday that he had only been only able to increase investment in schools and hospitals “because it was this Conservative government that tackled the debt and the deficit left behind by the last Labour government”.
“It was because we cleared up the wreckage they left behind that we now have record employment, wages rising the fastest for 10 years and we have record Foreign Direct Investment of £1.3 trillion, more than any other country in the EU,” Johnson said.
“So we have so many reasons to be confident about our country and its direction.”
But people have been quick to point out that national debt has actually increased under the Tories – from just over £1 trillion in May 2010 when David Cameron became prime minister to almost £1.8 trillion in August 2019.
This increase in the national debt is despite the fact that Cameron and his chancellor George Osborne made austerity the defining policy of their time in Downing Street.
“We could have done more, even more quickly, as smaller countries like Ireland had done, to get Britain back in the black and then get the economy moving,” the former PM wrote.
“Given all the hype and hostility, and yes, sometimes hatred, we might as well have ripped the plaster off with more cuts early on. We were taking the flak for them anyway.
“We should have taken advantage of the window of public support for cuts when it was open.”
In 2014, then-Labour leader Ed Miliband faced criticism from his own benches when he forgot to mention the fiscal deficit in his conference speech – which he delivered without notes or auto-cue.