Labour MEP Alfred Sant has urged the government to rein in its recurrent spending or it could pay a bitter price in the future.

Writing in a blog, the former prime minister said the government's challenge in the forthcoming Budget is to ensure public spending is kept under control.

The government, rightly, had every interest to improve the social wellbeing of the people, he said, but it also needed to control growth in current expenditure.

This could be done by removing or reducing needless or excessive outlays. It would be a difficult and complicated exercise. The administration would need to identify the sources of waste or inefficiencies.

Should this challenge be overcome, hardly anyone would notice and there would not be any immediate impact on political and economic life.

But if the challenge was not overcome, the Labour government after the next general election risked paying a bitter economic and political price. Economic growth would slow at some point. When this happened, uncontrolled government current spending would quickly become a millstone in the running of the country, Dr Sant warned.

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