MPs hit out at Chancellor’s plans

OLDHAM politicians have criticised the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams said: “There are some good bits of the Autumn Statement, but the Chancellor is still borrowing £219 billion more than he promised in 2010, £12.5 billion more this year and next year and he’s failed his own deficit reduction targets.”

The centrepiece of the Chancellor’s statement was an £800 million stamp duty cut that it is said will benefit 98 per cent of house buyers. But Mr Osborne plans further significant spending cuts in the next Parliament.

Oldham West and Royton MP Michael Meacher accused the Government of creating a worse financial situation for the country with its continued austerity.

He said Chancellor George Osborne must justify further cuts since the situation appears to be getting worse.

Speaking in the Commons in response to the Autumn Statement, Mr Meacher said: “With average wages still suffering the longest biggest fall since Victorian times, productivity still one of the lowest in the OECD, business investment below pre-crisis levels and the deficit on traded goods now the biggest in British history, how can the chancellor continue with austerity when the consequences are clearly now causing the deficit to rise?”