Every single prediction about the Tories choking the economy was completely wrong
In the spending review announcement - known as the Autumn Statement - Osborne said Britain's main opposition the Labour party was "completely wrong" about Osborne's raft of austerity measures since the Conservative-led government first came to power in 2010 as part of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and then again in 2015 when it won the General Election.
"When we first laid out tough policy measures to rebuild Britain and get this country living within our means, we were told by our critics that we would choke off growth and kill 1 million jobs. Every, single prediction was completely wrong," said Osborne in his speech.
"They claimed that it wasn't possible to create sound public finances and great public services [during a time of austerity] but now crime has gone down, more than one million more children are educated in great school and public satisfaction over local government work has gone up. It's is exact opposite of what they said. And now we are getting similar people saying the same thing again."
Osborne laid out in parliament how Britain's Office for Budget Responsibility officially revised up the country's economic growth to:
- 2.4% in 2015
- 2.5% in 2017
- Returning to 2.4% in 2018
- 2.3% in 2019-20.
He pointed out that the Tory-led government has done such a good job in growing the economy that while global trade and growth has been revised down elsewhere, Britain has one of the most enviable growth rates in Europe.
He added that this is why Britain's government "need to take the necessary steps to determine economic security" amid the "eurozone's persistent problems."