NEW Tory Chancellor Philip Hammond made it absolutely crystal clear yesterday that there would be no end to austerity under his watch.
Speaking to the Tory party conference in Birmingham he said: ‘Let me be clear, we are ready to take whatever steps are necessary to protect this economy from turbulence.’
Confirming that he is abandoning former chancellor Osborne’s key pledge that he would reduce the budget deficit to zero by 2020 and ‘balance the books’, he said: ‘When times change, we must change with them.
‘So we will no longer target a surplus at the end of this Parliament. But make no mistake, the task of fiscal consolidation must continue. The British people elected us on a promise to restore fiscal discipline. And that is exactly what we are going to do.’
The ‘balancing the books’ mantra was used persistently by Osborne to attempt to justify a decade of deep austerity cuts that have plunged working class and middle class families into poverty.
Outlining a programme of permanent austerity Hammond told conference: ‘The work that we began in 2010 is not finished. The deficit remains unsustainable and it will need to be tackled in due course.
‘Make no mistake the task of fiscal consolidation must continue and it must happen within the context of a clear, credible fiscal framework that will control day-to-day public expenditure, deliver value for money and get Britain back living within our means.
‘At the Autumn Statement in November, I will set out our plan to deliver long-term fiscal sustainability, while responding with the consequences of short-term uncertainty.’
