'Colossal' Tory Cuts Will Hit NHS, Says Balls

The "unprecedented" scale of Tory spending cuts would mean the NHS would end up footing the bill, the shadow chancellor has said.

Ed Balls said the Conservatives would take the country back to the 1930s with "colossal" cuts that would amount to £70bn in the next parliament.

He said: "Our analysis shows clearly - countries which reduce public spending at the pace George Osborne intends have found they have had no alternative but to cut health spending.

He added: "This shouldn't be a surprise. When George Osborne's plan means such extreme cuts to day-to-day departmental budgets, it's common sense that the NHS, which makes up a full third of the £317 billion spent in those budgets, ends up footing the bill."

In a speech in central London the shadow chancellor warned the cuts would lead to the smallest police force since comparable records began and the smallest Army since Oliver Cromwell's time.

It came as think-tank Royal United Services Institute warned defence cuts would put 30,000 jobs at risk leaving the combined forces with just 115,000 personnel by 2020.

Attempting to show that it was the Tories, and not Labour who could not be trusted on the economy, Mr Balls said if the Conservatives kept their promises to protect spending on health, schools and overseas aid other Government departments would have no budgets for day-to-day running.

He added: "Cuts on this scale would mean closing our embassies around the world, closing down all job centres and back-to-work programmes and all but ending central government's funding for local government. This is clearly impossible to countenance."

Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps said Mr Balls had "lost his marbles" by claming the Tories were planning "extreme" cuts.

He said the Institute for Fiscal Studies had put the Tory cuts at £30bn and the party had set it would meet this with £12bn welfare reductions, £13bn from Whitehall spending and £5bn by closing tax loopholes.

The Deputy Prime Minister added his criticism of Tory cuts during a separate speech in London.

He said: "They cannot embark on this right-wing lurch towards an ever-shrinking state and also somehow pretend that they can fund everything ... you can't.

"Something has to give."

Speaking alongside the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, Mr Clegg said the UK economy could overtake France and Germany by 2035 to be Europe's largest economy under Liberal Democrat plans.

The proposals would see the £4.6bn science budget ring-fenced and doubling innovation spending, increasing Government funding to more than £1bn by 2020-21.

He said: "The Liberal Democrats have rescued the economy and led the recovery. Now is the time to be ambitious about our future.

"We believe that by building a strong, modern, open economy we can become the powerhouse of Europe. We can grow faster than both France and Germany, overtaking them as the largest economy in Europe in 20 years' time."

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

'Colossal' Tory Cuts Will Hit NHS, Says Balls

Dengan url

http://yojanganmenyerah.blogspot.com/2015/03/colossal-tory-cuts-will-hit-nhs-says.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

'Colossal' Tory Cuts Will Hit NHS, Says Balls

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

'Colossal' Tory Cuts Will Hit NHS, Says Balls

sebagai sumbernya