Brexit was ‘very clearly’ an economic own goal for the government, says IFS director
IFS director Paul Johnson has been pressed by journalists in the Q&A what the “economic own goals” he alluded to in his opening remarks are.
He said they include the following:
Slashing investment spending in 2010, announced by last Labour government but continued by George Osborne. “Not a good way to get growth,” he said.
Cutting spending on education especially “huge cuts” to vocational and further education but also schools. Although schools spending is going up, FE didn’t get a mention in the autumn statement.
Brexit “very clearly” – economically speaking that has been “very bad news indeed” and continues to be, especially because of the hard Brexit and distancing from single market.
The mini-budget “obviously didn’t help” – “another large own goal”.
