THE UK's recovery has "finally got legs" and is "firmly on track" - those are not my words but the words of the prestigious Ernst & Young Item Club, just this week.

After three years in opposition the Labour Party has failed to make any impression on the economic debate. Frankly the public just don’t trust the two Eds.

Ed Balls' policies are shallow and ill-defined.  He just cannot cast out the demons of the party’s failures in office. How could he, as he is the architect for the mess we are in, as Gordon Brown’s right hand man?

Who remembers their 5-point plan for growth, which has just sunk into oblivion as Labour now accepts the spending plans of the Coalition Government?

Labour’s plan for more spending, more borrowing and more debt would make things worse and leave hardworking families having to pay the cost.

The deficit has been cut by a third. Of course there’s a squeeze on public sector finances. There has to be a squeeze on public sector finances, as we have to reduce the deficit. But this doesn’t mean that the economy will slow down. On the contrary more jobs are being created in the private sector. 

Private sector businesses have created 1.3 million new jobs. The private sector has created 3 jobs for every 1 lost in the public sector over the past three years. This is true right across West London.

To assist hard-working families the Coalition Government has given Ealing Council sufficient funds to freeze council tax for the past three years and has promised to continue this for the next two years. This is the single biggest and most visible tax that we all have to pay.  And it has been frozen year after year. So that’s a decline in real terms after inflation.

One of the biggest challenges facing the country is the cost of welfare. Labour has failed to advance any proposals for welfare reform.

We all know that the benefits system is unfair. A staggering £1.5billion is paid out in welfare benefits in Ealing alone. That figure equates to every man, woman and child in Ealing paying £4,500 to pay for welfare.

The respected polling company Opinion Matters recently published that fully 87% of Londoners are in favour of limiting overall welfare payments. Londoners support the government's introduction of a benefit cap and many believe it should be even lower than the current £26,000 a year figure.

Finding employment means that households can avoid the benefit cap. For those working 16 hours a week, or 24 hours for a couple household, then the cap is lifted.  

All the while the Labour leadership have been steamrollered into a clash with the unions, which they don’t want. This just reminds us of the still powerful voices of the public sector, who are in total denial of the need for reform of the public sector.