Miliband: Economic gamble has failed

Miliband: Economic gamble has failed

Miliband: Economic gamble has failed

Labour leader Ed Miliband looks ahead to next Tuesday's autumn statement, warning the country will discover if George Osborne's "economic gamble" has not worked:

"It will be the moment that we learn that the biggest economic gamble in a generation has catastrophically failed.

"George Osborne promised growth jobs, low inflation and borrowing falling. Growth is flat, unemployment up and inflation high.

"After the global financial crisis, Britain was faced with a deficit of over £150 billion.

"People rightly felt that it had to be dealt with. And they are still right to feel so.

"But what has changed, why the government no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, is that even on this measure – the central test they set themselves – the plan isn't working.

"It isn't working because their failure to get businesses growing, to see more jobs created, has locked them, and the country, into a vicious cycle on the deficit."