GEORGE Osborne has denied he “cut people to the quick” during his time as chancellor under David Cameron, insisting the gap between rich and poor did not get bigger under his tenure.
The ex-Tory MP was speaking on Good Morning Britain and was questioned about various contentious policies that he brought in including a two-year pay freeze for public sector workers, reducing housing benefit and freezing rates of child benefit.
Presenter Susanna Reid asked Osborne if he ever looked back and thought ‘I just cut people to the quick’, to which he said: “No.”
He went on to justify the austerity cuts his government brought in because of the context of the 2008 financial crash.
Osborne added: “I’m not saying we got everything right but it was the biggest [financial crash] in our lifetimes and affected countries all over the world, and those countries that had a clear plan like Britain at the time did do better, we recovered the economy grew, people were in work.
“More jobs were created under the Cameron government than in any British government in history.
'More jobs were created under the Cameron government than any British government in history.' 'You can't say I'm going to cut spending but I'm not going to touch benefits and public services'@George_Osborne reflects on his time as Chancellor pic.twitter.com/aIohMWnSI6
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) September 13, 2023
“When I was a child unemployment was an issue and it was not an issue despite the crash and that’s because we had a plan and some of those decisions we took were controversial but you can’t say ‘I’m going to cut spending, I’m going to make sure the state doesn’t borrow too much’, and then say ‘but I’m not going to touch benefits and public services’.”
Pushed on whether he thought the gap between rich and poor grew while he was in charge of the country’s finances, he said: “No it did not.”
He insisted there had been more opposition to things like a rise in university tuition fees and taking child benefit “away from the richest people” than was to how his approach affected the poorest in society.
The austerity programme was initiated in 2010 by the Conservative and LibDem coalition government, when it was decided to substantially reduce public spending in the hope of reducing national debt and eliminating the budget deficit at the time.
Osborne has previously tried to convince people that austerity was not an ideology but a necessary move, such as when he told the Covid-19 inquiry that it was “essential to rebuild fiscal space to provide scope to respond to future economic shocks.”
