Spending review: Osborne is backed by 35 captains of industry

Published on Monday 18 October 2010 15:53

SOME of the highest-profile business leaders yesterday signalled their support for Chancellor George Osborne's deficit reduction strategy.

A letter signed by Marks & Spencer chairman Sir Stuart Rose, BT chief executive Ian Livingston and Asda chairman Andy Bond, among others, said there was "no reason to believe" that Mr Osborne's plan to eliminate the 109 billion structural deficit within four years would undermine the recovery.

And it warned that Labour's plan to spread deficit reduction over more than one Parliament would be a "mistake", which would leave the UK almost 100bn deeper in debt by 2014-15 and increase the risk of interest rate rises.

The letter to a London-based newspaper comes as a boost for the Chancellor ahead of tomorrow's comprehensive spending review, in which he will spell out plans for 83bn of public spending cuts over four years.

The 35 businessmen insisted "the private sector should be more than capable of generating additional jobs to replace those lost in the public sector, and the redeployment of people to more productive activities will improve economic performance, so generating more employment opportunities".

The letter - which was also signed by Next chief executive Simon Wolfson, the GlaxoSmithKline chairman, Sir Christopher Gent, and Microsoft UK managing director Gordon Frazer - stated: "It has been suggested that the deficit reduction programme set out by George Osborne in his emergency budget should be watered down and spread over more than one Parliament.

"We believe that this would be a mistake.

"Addressing the debt problem in a decisive way will improve business and consumer confidence."