Every baby born in Britain starts life £17,000 in debt - Tories » Central Government » 24dash.com

Rapidly-rising Government debt means every baby born in Britain starts life owing £17,000, Tory leader David Cameron said today as he launched a new publicity campaign.

His claim came as the Opposition unveiled a hard-hitting new poster designed to highlight what it calls Labour's "debt crisis".

The poster, which will be shown at 260 billboard sites across the country, features a photograph of a baby and the slogan: "Dad's nose, mum's eyes, Gordon Brown's debt - Labour debt crisis: Every child in Britain is born owing £17,000. They deserve better."

Mr Cameron said that with national debt set to top £1 trillion in several years' time, the interest payment alone amounted to more than was spent on educating the nation's children.

He said of the campaign: "I think it is an extremely powerful, important and responsible message that we are quite right to get across...

"Labour are getting it wrong. It's easy for politicians to talk about tax rates and borrowing as if there was no tomorrow, but there is a tomorrow and it is going to be paid for by our children.

"And every child born today is entering the world with £17,000 of Labour debt hanging over them."

Speaking at the central London launch of the campaign, Mr Cameron said: "I'm standing in front of a poster of a beautiful, young baby - the most precious thing in the world.

"And my party is going to display this poster right around the country.

"Why? Because I profoundly believe the Prime Minister has got it wrong. Wrong in the past; wrong now; and wrong in the future.

"Wrong, wrong, wrong. And I want this poster to be the start of something - I want it to be the start of our country changing it and putting it right."

The Government's attempt to stimulate the economy by cutting VAT was "plain foolish" because it had not only failed to work in the short term but would also further increase debt.

"Unemployment's still going up; repossessions are still going up; the number of businesses going bust is still going up; Gordon Brown's recession policies are not working," he said.

Labour was set for another spending and borrowing "splurge" in the next Budget, he warned: "Even more extra debt for our children to pay off.

"We have got to turn this picture of despair into one of hope. We've got to show that there is a different way: that we can have an economy built on saving rather than debt; we can have a government that lives within its means rather than beyond its means; we can have real tax cuts that last, not tax cons that just buy you a headline.

"That's why we are doing this, because we believe children like this deserve better".

Mr Cameron accused Prime Minister Gordon Brown - who today announced measures to tackle rising unemployment including a so-called "golden hello" of £2,500 for firms recruiting people unemployed for more than six months - of stealing Conservative ideas.

He joked: "There are two things happening today: there's the announcement of the Conservative policy to make sure that anyone taken off the dole queue gives a grant to companies of £2,500 to make sure they take on new workers and... the unveiling of a Conservative poster.

"Obviously the Prime Minister is doing the first of those activities and I am here doing the second."

Mr Cameron denied that he was isolated internationally in not backing a large-scale fiscal stimulus in a bid to spend the country out of recession.

Britain - unlike Germany or the United States - could not afford such a policy, he said.

"The difference between (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel and Gordon Brown - apart from the obvious ones - is that she did fix the roof when the sun was shining.

"Germany went into this recession with a surplus; they have got their budget back into balance. So the key thing you have to ask is 'What is it each can country afford to do?'

"In our own circumstances, borrowing 8% of our GDP next year - more than when Denis Healey went to the IMF in 1976 - it is clear that we can't afford this stimulus.

"And the Government has made my argument for me because even they, not known for being paragons of truthfulness and openness, had to admit that taxes are going to have to go up when they announced that increase on National Insurance contributions."

Shadow chancellor George Osborne said: "Here are the hard facts about the grim future Labour offers: families are facing a bill of more than £2,000 just to pay the interest on Labour's debt; our country will have to spend more on paying off the interest on debt than on almost anything else - more than on the police, more than on prisons, more than on schools."

The UK was the only country that had been forced to publicly say it would raise taxes in the future in order to reassure international markets.

"Although governments have borrowed money before, under this Labour Government our national debt is set to double to over £1 trillion in just five years.

"Britain's debt burden will not be paid off by unspecified people at an unspecified date. This is not a problem that will solve itself over time.

"It will be paid by us and by our children. It means families will have to work longer... we will pay higher taxes."