The taxation and spending policies of the Tories and Labour are now indistinguishable, after Labour refused to vote on the recent UK Budget and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves MP confirmed that a future Labour government would adopt the Tories' spending straitjacket.
Labour now supports the proposal that overall public debt should fall year-on-year as a share of GDP by the fifth year of official forecasts - a policy adopted by the Tories in November 2022.
The move has been criticised by economists, with the Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, confirming that the Shadow Chancellor's rules would be "identical in effect" to that of current Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt.
Unite the Union General Secretary, Sharon Graham, has also condemned the move, saying: "If you stick to phoney fiscal rules, rule out taxing the wealthy, and pander to the profiteers, you end up in a straitjacket of your own making."
This confirms what we have all known for some time: the policies of the Tories and Labour are now indistinguishable.
Labour's decision to adopt the Tories' second fiscal rule will only choke off economic growth and impose devastating cuts to public services.
With public service cuts looming regardless of whether we have a Tory or Labour Prime Minister, it is imperative that at the next general election, a strong team of SNP MPs are returned to Westminster to fight Scotland’s corner.
