No they didn't. They were profligate spenders.
Suggest you read here http://www.robparker.org.uk/articles...e-of-payments/ and here http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/...sh-requirement
And of course neither of those referred-to sites has a political agenda of its own, has it?
Well one of these is to do with balance of payments (not under discussion) and the other discusses public spending in the context of world and national events.
If you look here
http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/sp...Percent_Of_GDP
you will see that public spending FALLS rapidly as percent of GDP after labour came to power, which is the important and generally used statistic.
Over time labour and conservative governments spend broadly the same % of GDP. For instance, by 2005 the % was roughly the same as it was in the mid 90's under the tories. (a little less if anything).
I don't support or defend labour.
But the truth matters, and it is simply not true to say that labour were profligate compared to the tories. Whether they should have spent our money to save the banks is another matter.