A former Victorian Labor MP has slammed the Allan government’s debt-fuelled infrastructure spending, saying there is no way the two Labor administrations he served would have racked up $155 billion in debt or committed to a project such as the Suburban Rail Loop without proper costings.

Tony Lupton, a former barrister who was a Labor MP from 2002 to 2010 and served as cabinet secretary to ex-premier John Brumby, is running as an independent candidate in a byelection this Saturday in his former seat of Prahran.