Which party borrows less, and grows the economy the most?

21st March 2016 - 2 minutes read

tax research Everybody knows that Labour always borrows more money than the Conservatives, and that the Conservatives always have to come back and rescue the economy from Labour’s profligacy and mis-management. it’s a given, fact

So take a guess. Is this a trick question and is there some obscure moment in history when Labour outperformed the Conservatives and managed to borrow less?

The truth is that over the last 70 years, since the Labour government in 1945-51, Labour has borrowed less money than the Conservatives, repaid national debt more often and has paid a greater sum than the Conservatives have. tax research table

In fact , Labour invariably borrows less than the Conservatives and the,’Conservatives are the party of high UK borrowing and low debt repayment’, contrary to all popular belief. The basic data here comes from the House of Commons and the Bank of England.

Who made the economy grow the most do you think? Most people will say, “the Conservatives of course”, but yet again the evidence is that over the same 70 year period Labour have outperformed the Conservatives with the economy.

Yes, up to 1979 the Conservatives appeared to do better, but that includes the post war growth in the 1950’s and the Conservatives were in power for almost twice as many years of Labour. The average real growth for each year in office is very close with 2.14% for Labour and 2.77% for the Conservatives.

Post 1979 however the figures are all in Labours favour even when the 2008 financial crisis is included. Without the crisis Labour are well ahead. tax research table 2 It’s important to add that The Financial crisis was not the result of Labour incompetence or profligacy. Below are links to other comments from Richard Murphy;