Downing Street Says » Business Secretary’s speech

» Monday, October 25, 2010

Business Secretary’s speech

Asked whether it was the Government’s policy to return to the principle of sharing the proceeds of growth in future, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) told the assembled press that questions about the future course of fiscal policy were something for the Chancellor to decide at future budgets. For the present time we had a significant deficit that we needed to deal with, and we had to do that in order to ensure sustainable growth. Put that during his speech today the Business Secretary had effectively ridiculed the Prime Minister for his comments on growth before the election, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said the Business Secretary had said nothing today that he had not said in the past; his views on the financial crisis were well known.

Asked on what basis people should trust future economic forecasts given everyone failed to see the last recession coming, the PMS said this was about the Government’s past forecasting record; one thing worth noting about this Government’s approach was that it no longer did its own forecasting. The Office for Budget Responsibility conducted the forecasts on an independent basis.

Asked if the Prime Minister had read the Business Secretary’s speech, the PMS said that No 10 had seen a copy of the speech.

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