Claim:
In an interview with the Spectator, Boris Johnson says the past nine years of austerity is not what he would have done, adding: “I remember having conversations with colleagues in the government that came in in 2010 saying I thought austerity was just not the right way forward for the UK.”
Background:
After the financial crisis and the recession that followed, the Conservative-led coalition government of David Cameron implemented a programme of extensive spending cuts in an attempt to reduce the UK’s budget deficit – the annual shortfall between tax income and government spending.
Once inflation is taken into account, the Resolution Foundation thinktank calculates that day-to-day departmental spending fell by £32bn between 2010-11 and 2017-18, from £334bn to £302bn. Figures released last year by the House of Commons Library revealed that £37bn was on course to be sliced off the welfare budget by 2021, a 25% reduction in real terms since 2010.
Johnson’s pledge to raise public spending has been framed as an attempt to end the past decade of austerity.
Reality:
Johnson had no direct hand in government policy at the start of the 2010 austerity drive as he was mayor of London and did not sit as an MP. But as a leading figure in the Conservative party he made several interventions on national issues, including austerity.
Writing in the Telegraph in 2010, he said the government should “bear down on wasteful public spending” to manage the deficit. While urging caution to avoid a double-dip recession, he added: “some pain is inevitable”.
However, he publicly clashed with Cameron on spending cuts – viewed in context as Johnson seeking a second mayoral term and to position himself as a rival to Cameron. He warned against cuts to transport infrastructure in London and attacked policing cuts during the 2011 London riots.
He warned benefit cuts could cause “Kosovo-style social cleansing of London”, though Johnson’s office distanced him from this comment after it drew criticism. “My consistent position has been that the government is absolutely right to reform the housing benefit system which has become completely unsustainable,” it said.
Since returning as an MP in 2015, Johnson has consistently voted in support of austerity policies, according to the They Work for You website.
He almost always voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits, including a vote in 2016 in favour of reductions to the work allowance element of universal credit and reductions to employment and support allowance.
He consistently voted for reducing central government funding for local authorities, including most recently to vote to set the main central government grant for 2018-19 at a level 56% lower than it was set for 2017-18.
Looking ahead to Johnson’s position on austerity now he is prime minister, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the 2019 Conservative manifesto would leave public service spending outside of health still 14% lower in 2023-24 than it was in 2010-11, adding: “No more austerity perhaps, but an awful lot of it baked in.”
Verdict
Johnson did speak out against austerity while London mayor at the inception of austerity, though this could be viewed as him vying for more personal power. In parliament he has voted in favour of austerity policies, while his party delivered lasting cuts in government.
