Hain blasts slowest economic recovery since records began

Anti-austerity champion Peter Hain has launched a stinging attack on Chancellor George Osborne as figures reveal Britain is struggling through the slowest economic recovery on record.

Data compiled by the Trade Union Congress shows that the British economy has typically grown in size by 16.1% in the first five years after recession – however under George Osborne that number has struggled to reach 8.8%.

This news compounds the Tories economic woes as in January it was revealed that over one quarter of Wales’ working age population is economically inactive.

The Neath MP said, “We have to recognise the utter folly promoted by George Osborne and his Tory austerity addicts. Britain desperately needs growth and their cuts jeopardise the country’s economic security.”

Mr Hain continued: “Between 2010 & 2012 the government made a number of disastrous decisions which seriously harmed the public investment led recovery the last Labour government had started.”

“As the TUC’s research shows, the strongest recovery on record occurred after the Great Depression, when massive public investment helped create jobs, tax receipts and growth.”

In the last quarter of 2014 Britain’s economy grew by just half of a percentage point, much lower than estimates from the Office of Budget Responsibility and City of London had expected, while Britain’s growth prospects for 2015 have also been revised down to just 2.4% in total, after the OBR had initially confidently predicted growth of 3%.

Fears are growing of another recession in Britain as economic indicators are suggesting a general slowdown. Employment in Wales fell by 40,000 over the year from January 2014.

“A vote for a Tory is a vote for economic lunacy in the upcoming election”, said Mr Hain, as he urged Welsh voters to defy the neo-liberal orthodoxy that drastic cuts would balance the British economy.

A graph by the TUC details the average growth of the British economy in the five years after a recession.