Tom Brake on why Liberal Democrats opposed George Osborne’s Fiscal Charter

It's all quite simple, really - the Liberal Democrats, unlike Labour, were not going to fall into Osborne's trap. Here is Tom Brake's speech from last night's debate:

• The Liberal Democrats will not support the charter tonight. Whatever the machinations in the Labour party, our reasons for opposing it are clear: the charter is just as much about fantasy economics as was Labour's magic money tree. We remain committed to abolishing the structural deficit by 2017-18, and to seeing debt fall as a percentage of GDP in the following years. We will not, however, abandon the critical need for continued investment in infrastructure, and we will ensure that our economy remains competitive in the medium and long term. We are for sound and stable economic policy-something that sadly has been abandoned first by the official Opposition and now by the Government.
• The charter is a trap set for the Labour party into which it has fallen headlong, and I suggest that it is also a trap for the Government over which they risk tying themselves in knots. What will happen if the Chancellor discovers that the Government are on course to miss their surplus target but growth is just ahead of 1%? Which of his rules will he break? Economic credibility means that markets, businesses and other investors have confidence that the Government will do what they say, and the charter manifestly fails that test. We will vote no tonight because the charter will simply not work. Its purpose is purely political, and parliamentary time should not be abused in this way.

Two paragraphs of common sense. John McDonnell could learn from this.

The rest of the debate was simply the Tories making fun of Labour, the SNP trying to score political points off Labour and Labour being, what was it again, oh yes, embarrassing.

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