Former Chancellor Alistair Darling Speaks to G&T on the Coming Budget and Taxation

Former Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has told Times Radio he backs Sir Keir Starmer's position that now is not the time to raise taxes.

Speaking to Gloria De Piero and Tom Newton Dunn on G&T on Sunday ahead of the Budget, he said:

I would not want to be taking money out of the economy just now. When the Tory/Liberal coalition government took office in 2010 they made a big mistake in assuming that it was okay to start cutting into things - what's now known as austerity - which meant that we never really got a sustained recovery. The recovery bumped along for about eight or nine years before, of course, the pandemic then hit. I think it would be a big mistake to take money out of the economy this year.

And on how much Rishi Sunak needs to "level" with the public about how to pay for the UK recovery:

It's always important that people who are elected to high political office are straightforward and level with the public. You would hope that's a statement of the blindingly obvious. I don't think anyone can be under any illusion that having borrowed this much it's got to be repaid at some stage. The argument will be how you best achieve that.

It's not easy. I know from my own experience sometimes when you "level" with the public it doesn't always go down well. I said that I thought that the last downturn would be more profound and long-lasting and it was not met with universal acclaim. However, I do think that yes, he's got to be straightforward about it and it would be astonishing if he wasn't.