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Autumn Statement: Ed Balls reacts to Osborne's speech Autumn Statement: Ed Balls says Osborne's targets 'in tatters'
(35 minutes later)
People are £1,600 a year worse off as a result of the government's policies, shadow chancellor Ed Balls has said. Chancellor George Osborne's promise to balance the nation's books in this parliament is "in tatters", shadow chancellor Ed Balls has said.
He said a squeeze on living standards has hit family budgets and led to a fall in tax receipts, as he responded to the Autumn Statement. He said Mr Osborne is forecast to borrow £219bn more than planned, as he responded to the Autumn Statement.
Mr Balls asked the chancellor to confirm that national debt was forecast to rise next year. "Every target missed, every test failed, every promise broken," he told MPs, and claimed that people were £1,600 a year worse off as a result.
Chancellor George Osborne said he had steered the economy from crisis to stability. George Osborne said he had steered the economy from crisis to stability.
He said that although borrowing was set to £91.3bn this year - above the forecast £87bn - the longer term outlook was rosy, with the UK "out of the red and into the black" by 2019/20. He said Mr Balls had "no answers" to the economic challenges the country faces. "He has no credibility, no workable policies, because he has got not plan."
A future Labour government would take Britain back to square one, he told the Commons.
In his Autumn Statement, Mr Osborne said that although borrowing was set to be £91.3bn this year - above the forecast £87bn - the longer term outlook was rosy, with the UK "out of the red and into the black" by 2019/20.
Government borrowing is forecast to be £91.3bn this year, then £75.9bn, MPs were told. In March the forecast for this year was for borrowing of almost £87bn.Government borrowing is forecast to be £91.3bn this year, then £75.9bn, MPs were told. In March the forecast for this year was for borrowing of almost £87bn.
"The deficit is falling this year and every year," Mr Osborne said."The deficit is falling this year and every year," Mr Osborne said.
'Every target missed'
However, responding to the chancellor's fiscal statement in the Commons, Mr Balls claimed the chancellor had not been straight about the figures.
Citing the latest economic statistics from the independent Office for Budget Responsibility, he told MPs that borrowing has been revised up by £4.9bn this year, and by £7.6bn in 2015.
"Over two years he's revised up borrowing by £12.5bn... this means the chancellor will have borrowed in this parliament £219bn more than he planned in 2010.
"It's all here in black and white," he said.
He said stagnating wages had squeezed living standards and led to a fall in tax receipts, with people on average £1,600 worse off.
"We all know he's changed the way he's styled his hair but he can't brush away the facts," he said.
Mr Balls added: "He promised to make people better off. Working people are worse off. He promised we were all in this together. When he cut taxes for millionaires...
"Every target missed, every test failed, every promise broken."
The shadow chancellor said Labour would deliver an economic recovery "for the many, not just a few", and balance the nation's finances in a fairer way.