Labour’s new strategy in the cuts blame game

Even as Ed Balls embraces the need for austerity today, he takes a very different position to the coalition on why it’s necessary. The government has always blamed the need for cuts on the ‘awful economic inheritance’ bequeathed it by Labour. Balls, on the other hand, puts the blame squarely at George Osborne’s door. In his Fabian Society speech, he said:

‘George Osborne’s economic mistakes mean more difficult decisions on tax, spending and pay.’

His argument is that, by cutting ‘too far and too fast’, the coalition has caused the economy to stagnate and thereby created the need for more austerity. Labour has, of course, long been trying to shift the blame for the cuts away from themselves and onto the coalition. Thus far, they’ve not been terribly successful: 39 per cent of the public think Labour are most to blame, compared to 22 per cent who think the coalition are, according to a YouGov poll this week. In fact, as this graph shows, Labour made no headway at all in the last twelve months:

Balls’ remarks today mark a new Labour strategy on this front. Previously, their argument has been that the coalition was cutting far more deeply and quickly than necessary. Now, the Shadow Chancellor says such deep cuts are necessary, but only because of ‘Osborne’s mistakes’. They’ll be hoping this new tack helps them shift the blame in 2012, as they failed to do in 2011.