Danny Alexander plays down credit rating

By Angus Howarth
Published on 07/08/2012 00:00

BRITAIN’S credit rating is “not the be-all and end-all”, Danny Alexander, the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has said.

His comments came shortly after Chancellor George Osborne hailed confirmation of Britain’s gold-plated AAA credit rating by a key agency.

The Chancellor last month said the verdict from Standard & Poor’s showed the “world has confidence” in the coalition’s economic policies.

But in a radio interview, Mr Alexander said: “The credit rating is not the be-all and end-all. What matters is have we got the right policy mix for the country to get people back into work, to support economic growth, to deal with the huge problems in our public finances.

He added: “The credit rating agencies reflect on those things and the ratings they give are a
reflection of the credibility of that mix.

“We have to make a judgment about what we think are the right policies for the UK, the credit rating agencies then make their judgments on the basis of that.”

Shadow Treasury minister Chris Leslie warned against shaping economic policy around credit ratings agencies.

He said: “I do think it’s a fundamental danger to structure all of your economic policies to orientate around the opinions of credit ratings agencies, rather than on the facts of the economy. These can be very conservative with a small ‘c’, orthodox economic viewpoints, and they have been wildly wrong before.”

S&P said its outlook for the UK’s coveted rating was stable and predicted the economy would pick up in the coming months. The news was a boost to Mr Osborne after dire GDP figures prompted heavy criticism of his performance and the government’s austerity measures.

Figures last month showed the UK economy sliding deeper into recession with a 0.7 per cent fall in GDP between April and June.