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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Ed Miliband to set out plans for deficit cuts | Ed Miliband to set out plans for deficit cuts |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| Ed Miliband will seek to capture the middle ground on the deficit on Thursday, saying he will not follow the Tory plan for cutting total public spending to 35% of GDP but will promise to reduce spending in most departments year-on-year until the current deficit is eliminated. | Ed Miliband will seek to capture the middle ground on the deficit on Thursday, saying he will not follow the Tory plan for cutting total public spending to 35% of GDP but will promise to reduce spending in most departments year-on-year until the current deficit is eliminated. |
| In a speech on Thursday he will claim Labour is engaged in a fight for the soul of Britain, and assert that Tory fiscal plans will mean disintegration of public services. | In a speech on Thursday he will claim Labour is engaged in a fight for the soul of Britain, and assert that Tory fiscal plans will mean disintegration of public services. |
| The coalition is expected to publish a charter on budget responsibility, setting a target date to eliminate the deficit by 2017-18, with a vote on the charter in the new year. Labour has so far said it will cut the deficit “as soon as possible in the next parliament”, but has not committed itself to a specific date. | The coalition is expected to publish a charter on budget responsibility, setting a target date to eliminate the deficit by 2017-18, with a vote on the charter in the new year. Labour has so far said it will cut the deficit “as soon as possible in the next parliament”, but has not committed itself to a specific date. |
| Miliband is likely to say Labour is, in principle, willing to vote for the charter but will meet the 2017-18 target only if the state of the economy allows it. | Miliband is likely to say Labour is, in principle, willing to vote for the charter but will meet the 2017-18 target only if the state of the economy allows it. |
| Labour hopes a new, broader debate on the deficit has been opened up by the revelation in the autumn statement showing the deficit was not falling as fast as planned due to an insecure labour market and falling living standards, in turn reducing tax receipts. He will claim that Labour is locked in a fight for the soul of the country. | Labour hopes a new, broader debate on the deficit has been opened up by the revelation in the autumn statement showing the deficit was not falling as fast as planned due to an insecure labour market and falling living standards, in turn reducing tax receipts. He will claim that Labour is locked in a fight for the soul of the country. |
| Labour’s leader, with the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, does not regard a vote for the charter as a substantive change in the Labour position. The pair claim it will be the Conservatives who have given ground since they favoured eradicating the capital and current deficit by 2017-18. | Labour’s leader, with the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, does not regard a vote for the charter as a substantive change in the Labour position. The pair claim it will be the Conservatives who have given ground since they favoured eradicating the capital and current deficit by 2017-18. |
| A target to eliminate the current budget by 2017-18, as opposed to a longer timetable reaching the final year of the parliament, 2019-20, would probably require £10bn of extra departmental cuts, but that figure depends on the level of planned tax rises as well as growth. | A target to eliminate the current budget by 2017-18, as opposed to a longer timetable reaching the final year of the parliament, 2019-20, would probably require £10bn of extra departmental cuts, but that figure depends on the level of planned tax rises as well as growth. |
| Balls will write to shadow cabinet members saying most departments should plan on the basis that their budgets will be cut not only in 2015-16, but “each year until we have achieved our promise to balance the books”. His letter says that overseas aid and health will be protected from cuts and it is likely the schools budget will be added to that by the time of the manifesto. | Balls will write to shadow cabinet members saying most departments should plan on the basis that their budgets will be cut not only in 2015-16, but “each year until we have achieved our promise to balance the books”. His letter says that overseas aid and health will be protected from cuts and it is likely the schools budget will be added to that by the time of the manifesto. |
| Balls told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday that he had a credible plan on the economy and would not make promises he could not keep. | |
| “We have said there will be a limited number of protected areas and we will set them out for our manifesto. Clearly, the National Health Service is a protected area. We have also said, and other parties have agreed on this, that we need to keep our international development commitment to 0.7% of GDP, but there are other very many important areas. | |
| “But I am afraid we are going to inherit a very big deficit. Our commitment is to cut the deficit every year. We are going to do so in a tough but balanced way, and as part of that I have said to my departmental colleagues they are going to have to plan on cutting spending, not just in 2015-16, but every year until we get the deficit down.” | |
| Miliband will accuse the Tories of wanting expenditure on public services to fall to a share last seen in the 1930s – a time before the NHS and when young people left school at 14. | Miliband will accuse the Tories of wanting expenditure on public services to fall to a share last seen in the 1930s – a time before the NHS and when young people left school at 14. |
| He will say: “The Tories have been finally exposed for what they really are – not modern compassionate Conservatives at all, but extreme and ideological, committed to a dramatic shrinking of the state and public services no matter what the consequences. | He will say: “The Tories have been finally exposed for what they really are – not modern compassionate Conservatives at all, but extreme and ideological, committed to a dramatic shrinking of the state and public services no matter what the consequences. |
| “They are doing it not because they have to do it, but because they want to. That is not our programme, that will never be our programme, and I do not believe it is the programme the British people want.” | “They are doing it not because they have to do it, but because they want to. That is not our programme, that will never be our programme, and I do not believe it is the programme the British people want.” |
| At the same time Miliband will try to reassure those worried that Labour will ignore the deficit. He will say “some people think the deficit simply does not matter to our mission and should not be our concern. They are wrong, it matters”. He will warn that higher debt-interest payments will take money from public services and from investment in the long-term potential of the economy. He will say: “Higher spending is not the answer to the long-term economic crisis we have identified. Unless we fundamentally reshape out economy we will only be able ever to compensate people for unfairness and inequality.” | At the same time Miliband will try to reassure those worried that Labour will ignore the deficit. He will say “some people think the deficit simply does not matter to our mission and should not be our concern. They are wrong, it matters”. He will warn that higher debt-interest payments will take money from public services and from investment in the long-term potential of the economy. He will say: “Higher spending is not the answer to the long-term economic crisis we have identified. Unless we fundamentally reshape out economy we will only be able ever to compensate people for unfairness and inequality.” |
| Painting as lurid a picture of the Tory spending plans as possible he will also say: “This is now a fight for the soul of our country. It is a fight about who we want to be, and how we want to live together. The Tory vision is clear: the wealthiest being looked after, everybody else on their own, public services not there when you need them.” | Painting as lurid a picture of the Tory spending plans as possible he will also say: “This is now a fight for the soul of our country. It is a fight about who we want to be, and how we want to live together. The Tory vision is clear: the wealthiest being looked after, everybody else on their own, public services not there when you need them.” |