GORDON Brown’s handling of the financial crisis has been slammed by one of New Labour’s former top economic advisors.
Derek Scott -Tony Blair’s advisor for over six years – claims the Prime Minister has made “a complete shambles of public finances”.
And he has rubbished Peter Mandelson’s claims that the present crisis is not down to them as “drivel”.
The economist – who served the Blair government between May 1997 and December 2003 – let rip during an interview with Radio 5 Live.
He said: “I think Gordon Brown has made a complete shambles of the public finances and that has given much less room for manoeuvre.
“Clearly there has been a huge turnaround in the Bank of England’s forecast in growth and inflation and there’s a good chance it will fall to its lowest for 40 or 50 years.
“The debt was brought down in the first couple of years when the Labour government stuck to the Conservative Party’s plans for spending, but since then it has been rising steadily.”
And the respected advisor has rubbished claims by Secretary of State for Business and Enterprise Peter Mandelson who said the present financial crisis “was not of our making”.
He said: “I think what Mandelson said is largely drivel, frankly.
“Clearly there is a major international problem but the present government has set up a supervisory regime that is shown to be inadequate.
“The problem with that is when it all goes wrong it isn’t Mandelson or Brown who suffers, it’s the poor sod at the bottom of the ladder.”
Mr Scott has previously clashed with Brown when the PM accused him of “peddling extortions” in 2004.
And he also warned the government not to ignore the markets when implementing much needed tax breaks.
