How politicians should learn from Liam Byrne on being candid about public finances
When Liberal Democrat MP David Laws arrived at his desk on his first day as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 2010, he found a candid note from predecessor Liam Byrne that read: “I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left.”
No such note appears to have been left for Labour’s new Chancellor Rachel Reeves as she is expected to announce today that she has discovered a black hole in the public finances of around £20 billion.
This will no doubt presage some management of expectations around government spending plans, hindered by what will be described as the recklessness of the previous Tory administration.
Steve Reed, the UK government’s Environment Minister, denied yesterday there was anything performative about Labour’s shock at discovering their “catastrophic” public finances inheritance.
“It’s not only that we didn’t know, the prime minister deliberately covered it up,” he told Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips.
Still, it is difficult not to suspect the state of the nation’s finances did not come as a complete surprise.
The national debt now stands at around £2.7 trillion - roughly the same as GDP. Against this backdrop, it is perhaps little wonder the government will have to cut its cloth.
New East Renfrewshire Labour MP Blair McDougall has denied this £20bn black hole will lead to severe public spending cutbacks, amid reports suggesting key hospital and road building schemes could be cut.
But in Scotland, we have seen the NHS infrastructure plan for the building of new hospitals, surgeries and treatment centres – which was supposed to be published in the spring – delayed until December.
In a letter to MSPs, Shona Robison, cabinet secretary for finance and local government, said the delay was because she “must wait until I have confirmed capital allocations from the new UK government”.
Perhaps ministers at both Westminster and Holyrood could use some of the candour displayed by Mr Byrne when making pledges about what they can and cannot deliver.