Peter Hoskin

Osborne gets bolder on spending cuts

And so the Tories continue to ramp up their rhetoric on spending cuts.  On the day that the Institute for Fiscal Studies again warns of the hole in our public finances, George Osborne has claimed that a Tory government would the look at the public sector’s “inflexible” three-year pay deals.  Paul Waugh has all the key quotes, but this passage sums up the tone of Osborne’s message:

“I haven’t ruled out further tax rises although I will work hard to avoid them. I think where the bulk of the strain needs to be borne is on spending restraint. I think the current spending plans pencilled in by the government of a 1.1 per cent growth in future years, albeit that sounds quite tight is not tight enough given the fiscal situation we have to face.”

The Tories still need to go much, much further, even just to balance the books in government.  But Osborne and Cameron are, at last, making the right noises on public spending, and they’re doing so on an ever more frequent basis.  As the Spectator/PoliticsHome poll indicated last week, the public should well respond positively.

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