Safe in their hands?

The UK economy and the new Conservative government

In the wake of the May 2015 election, the government claims its medicine is working, the UK is well on its way back to a measure of prosperity and the structural public deficit will be eliminated in the current parliament. Kevin Albertson of Manchester Metropolitan University looks at what lay behind the deficit, and the likelihood of current policy eliminating it by 2020

macroeconomic policy, public debt, financial crisis

In May 2015, to the surprise of many, the Conservative Party secured sufficient seats in Westminster to govern without the need of a coalition partner. Having served in a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats since 2010, the general message of the Conservatives’ campaign was that the UK’s economic recovery was safest in their hands and that they had the political will to see through the job of addressing the public debt.