The Institute of Fiscal Studies has criticised David Cameron for comments he has made on the UK government’s proposed spending cuts, and has warned the next government will have “the same amount of pain as this one.”
The Prime Minister wrote in the Times yesterday that the Coalition government “will have made £100bn of savings” during this parliament, with “£25bn in further savings planned” for the next parliament. However the thinktank’s director Paul Johnson said today that the two numbers were “measured in really quite different ways” and that “really, we’re about halfway through.”
Criticising the Prime Minister, Labour's Shadow Chief Secretary said "David Cameron will be judged on his actions, not his words. He's raised taxes 24 times. While millionaires have been given a huge tax cut, ordinary working people are paying more because he raised VAT and cut tax credits. Independent figures from the IFS show that by next year families will be £974 a year worse off because of tax and benefit changes since 2010. And David Cameron still won't rule out raising VAT again on families and pensioners to pay for £7 billion of unfunded tax promises.
Turning to what Labour would do, Mr Leslie commented: "Labour's economic plan will introduce a lower 10p starting rate of tax for 24 million people on middle and low incomes and cut business rates for small firms. We will tackle tax avoidance and introduce a mansion tax to invest in our National Health Service. And to balance the books in a fairer way we'll reverse David Cameron's £3 billion tax cut for the top one per cent of earners.”
Also Commenting, SNP Treasury spokesperson Stewart Hosie MP said: “David Cameron is trying to wash over the figures when we can expect more of the same in cuts from the next Westminster government. The Prime Minister is repeating a claim he made at the Tory Party conference, but as the IFS has pointed out his numbers don’t add up."
Continuing Stewart Hosie said: "While it’s right to tackle the deficit, the austerity measures so far have simply made things worse. Tory policy has stifled growth, and as the IFS has made clear today, there is much more pain still to come. That's why we need substantial economic and financial powers in Scotland - as the Westminster parties promised us in their Vow - so that we can grow the economy and invest in public services."
