Texto do The Guardian. Links são do original.
Alan Johnson launched a ferocious onslaught on the government's plans for deep and immediate spending cuts, warning they would "fundamentally alter our community" and inflict greater and more lasting damage on public services than Margaret Thatcher.
In an interview with the Observer, less than 24 hours after being appointed shadow chancellor by Ed Miliband, Johnson tore into the coalition's economic strategy, suggesting it heightened the risk of a double-dip recession.
He spoke out amid signs that ministers themselves were growing increasingly nervous at the effect their plans for £83bn worth of cuts – to be unveiled in 10 days' time – could have on jobs and economic activity.
While accepting that some cuts have to be made, and insisting that Labour will not oppose them all, Johnson said that 25% cuts in many departments' budgets, coupled with complex reorganisations of the NHS and police services, would cause joblessness and insecurity across the country.
Pointing to Ireland's descent back towards recession, he said: "We don't have to look far to see what the effect can be of cutting too deep too soon. Even if double dip doesn't happen, the way this coalition is implementing these changes will fundamentally alter our community and lead to a situation where we spend years trying to repair the damage.
"If you think of Thatcher in the 80s, the most she cut was 10%, and we are still feeling the effect of that in Hull, the city I represent."
Johnson, who was home secretary until the May election, said there was "no way" the Home Office could slash its budget by 25% and keep the network of neighbourhood policing. "You have not just got the cuts too quickly and deeply, you have got organisational upheaval in the police and NHS. All of this taken together is going to cause huge harm to our public services."
He said the fact that the chancellor, George Osborne, had given permission to the Bank of England to pump more economy into the economy in another round of so-called "quantitative easing" – coupled with gloomy employment figures from the US – was evidence of how fragile the economy was.
The shadow chancellor was Miliband's surprise choice for the post on Friday, as the new Labour leader brushed aside the claims of Ed Balls and his wife, Yvette Cooper. Balls and Cooper had called for Labour to back away from the party's commitment to halve the deficit over the next four years.
Johnson said he fully backed the existing policy, which struck a balance between bringing the deficit down and supporting growth. "I am a realist about this. If you are cranking up lots of interest on debt you need to bring the deficit down as fast as you can, consistent with jobs and growth and I think that is where the Conservatives have fallen down."
He brushed aside suggestions that he lacked the economic expertise and knowledge for the most important job in the shadow cabinet. "You don't need to be a professor of economics to be a Treasury minister," said Johnson, who left school at the age of 15. "I will do this job the way I have done other jobs. I would not pretend to be the greatest gift to the cabinet but I have done five cabinet jobs and I have done them OK.
"It is about getting up to speed very quickly and it is about listening to people. Particularly in this brief it is more about listening to people than reading up. I am not going to do an economics degree in the next few months."
Today the coalition appeared to be giving out mixed messages on the economy after the energy secretary, Chris Huhne, said cuts could be scaled back if economic conditions deteriorate. Later, however, the chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, told the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference the planned cuts were "unavoidable".
Johnson said he strongly opposed the coalition's decision to withdraw child benefit from families with a higher rate taxpayer because it was "probably the most precious" of universal benefits.
He said he would look seriously at further action against the banks, including plans to increase the bank levy and target bonuses. "We should look at all of that. It is totally reasonable to look at that without in any way failing to realise the importance of financial services to our economy."
He added that people were angered by the unfairness that allowed bankers to receive massive bonuses at a time of spending cuts. "They believe that these huge disparities in wealth are wrong. We are at a time and in an era where people are questioning that much more than they would have done before and I think that is right."
Miliband's decision to offer him the job showed how much he wanted to unite the party, he said. "This was a hugely generous offer. Ed didn't have to make this offer to me, given the fact I was a prominent supporter of his brother during the election campaign.
"The jobs he has offered in the shadow cabinet show he wants to unite the party. So when he made the offer to me, how could you refuse that? It is a big, big job. It was so obviously a mark of the man and his determination to unite the party."
Tony Blair's former spin doctor, Alastair Campbell, said today that Miliband needs to develop a "proper economic narrative" if he is to take on the coalition credibly over cuts.
"A lot depends on what happens to the coalition and a lot depends on what happens to the Labour party," Campbell said. "When the cuts do start to kick in [he's capable of winning an election], providing we have got a proper economic narrative which isn't just about saying, 'We're against the cuts'."
Imagem: REUTERS, tirada daqui
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