Government's debt position not flattering - Cable

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Mon 2nd Apr 2007

Commenting on the article in Sunday Telegraph on Government's debt burden, Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Vince Cable MP said: "It is certainly true that the Government's debt position is not as flattering as the Government itself describes it.

"There are substantial hidden liabilities in the form of public sector pensions, which have never been properly and honestly acknowledged.

"There are also large Private Finance Initiatives which are being used as form of hire purchase. The Ministry of Defence is a particularly serious offender with rapidly growing liabilities designed to avoid painful spending choices.

"All of this is taking the Government close to, if not over, its own 40 per cent of GDP debt ratio and is knocking a large hole in the Government's own fiscal rules.

"That is why the Liberal Democrats have been arguing for a long time that the Government's performance on the fiscal rules needs to be independently evaluated. We cannot simply take them on trust."