Britain's austerity programme is a “myth” designed to “con” the financial markets, a major City finance company claimed today.
Tullett Prebon, a bond trader, said that “public expenditures have hardly been reduced at all” and that claims of a “big cut in public spending is bare-faced deception”.
Figures highlighted by the firm show that public spending actually rose during 2010-11 and fell by just 1.5 percent last year.
Government spending is more than £22 billion higher than it was in 2008 when the financial crisis erupted.The majority of extra money required by ministers to fill the black hole in the finances caused by the recession is being raised from extra taxes rather than cuts in Government spending.
Dr Tim Morgan, the global head of research at Tullett Prebon, said: “It’s high time that this mendacity was exposed for what it is. Government has done very little about its spending, has appropriated three-quarters of all gains in economic output for its own use, has carried on piling up debt – and has tried to pass all this off as 'responsible austerity’....MORE
