The only time the previous Labour government was paying off the national debt was in the few years that they followed the 5 year economic plan of the previous Conservative government. Afterwards they went on a spending splurge, which at first reduced the surplus, but by 2002(ie before the crash) led to borrowing being required.
Link
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It might easier to cut back on single spending plans like road building, but spending on things like benefit levels, tax credits are almost impossible to cut back on. Gordon Brown purposely made tax credits more generous which led to an entrenched public spending requirement.
Link
Not sure how not having austerity in any shape or form would lead to paying off the national debt.
From 2008
Labour's use of PFI locked in future spending for the next 30 years. Whatever government was in power would have to continue to pay those commitments.
One myth is that Labour were good on social sector house building, and the Tories bad.
Just look at the
graph in the link.
The yellow section of the graph which refers to housing association(ie social sector) building is much thinner under Labour than it was pre 1997 and post 2010. I got to admit, even I was surprised by that graph, because the impression that is given is that it was the reverse, ie Labour built more. The fact is they didn't, even in the good times.