Spending cuts 'inevitable whoever wins'

PUBLIC services face spending cuts whoever wins the next general election, shadow business secretary Kenneth Clarke said yesterday.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown accused the Conservatives of planning "savage" cuts in frontline services, branding David Cameron "Mr 10 Per Cent" after one of his shadow ministers suggested that this was the level of spending reductions that could be expected under a Tory administration.

But Mr Clarke dismissed the PM's claims as "childish nonsense", accusing Mr Brown of attempting to deceive voters into thinking the election would be a choice between Labour investment and Tory cuts.

He said that a Conservative regime would have to hold a major public spending review immediately after taking office to decide what projects it could continue to fund, and urged the government to press ahead with its own review, originally pencilled in for the autumn.

Mr Clarke said: "At the moment, for every £3 Gordon Brown's government is raising in tax, it is spending £4. You don't have to be an economist to know that is unsustainable.

"It is ludicrous for Gordon to pretend that he hasn't already himself started planning to cut down that level of spending in order to get back to reality."

Writing in a Sunday newspaper, Mr Brown said: "We now know that the Tories want to cut public spending by a savage 10 per cent. They have finally revealed what their true priorities are: a cuts plan that is wide, deep and immediate in order to fund a £200,000 tax cut for the 3,000 richest families.

"David Cameron – Mr 10 Per Cent – would actually make the recession worse, by slowing public spending at exactly the time we need it most.

"The impact wouldn't just be felt in our national economy, but at the level it matters most. Cuts of 10 per cent would mean 44,000 fewer teachers, 15,000 fewer police, 10,000 fewer soldiers and, each year, 32,000 fewer university places."

But Mr Clarke said the public was ready to accept that public spending must be reduced and wanted to hear a debate about how best that can be achieved.

The 10 per cent figure quoted by shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley last week was based on government figures showing reduced real-term spending over the coming years, he said.