Chancellor Rachel Reeves has denied that the announcements made in her Spring Statement on Wednesday amounted to ‘austerity 2.0’ in an interview with ITV News.
"This is a far cry from what we saw in the Conservative years," Reeves said in an interview with ITV News Westminster Reporter Lewis Denison.
Reeves reiterated that Labour had put £190 billion into day-to-day government spending, saying that money is going towards "teachers in our schools, the appointments in our National Health Service, the police, [and] the armed forces" as well as an additional £100 billion into capital spending.
"The austerity period, particularly 2010 to 2015, when Cameron and Osborne were prime minister and chancellor, there were cuts every year in spending, and there were cuts to capital spending as well. So we’re increasing spending in every year now," she added.
She also ruled out the idea of bringing back national service to help bolster defence, saying: "I’m not in favour of national service but there are vacancies in our armed forces and we need to recruit more people."
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