Nick Clegg: we would prevent Tory cuts or reduce Labour's deficit

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/28/nick-clegg-prevent-tory-cuts-reduce-labours-deficit

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The Liberal Democrats have ruled out entering a coalition with the Conservative party if it pursues its plans to cut £12bn from welfare and balance the books through cuts alone, or with the Labour party if it does not commit to a timetable on deficit reduction.

In the party’s second “red line” announcement in two days Nick Clegg said he would force the two biggest parties to “put their cards on the table” within weeks of the election and that the Lib Dems would not let them risk the country’s economic recovery.

Speaking at the National Liberal Club in London on Tuesday, the Lib Dem leader said his party would insist that any coalition government of which it was part passed a “stability budget”, setting out tax and welfare plans to balance the cyclically adjusted current budget, within the first 50 days of the parliament.

He said the remaining savings from departmental expenditure would be detailed in the comprehensive spending review, to be held in autumn 2015.

“There will be no deal if there is no stability; no coalition without coming clean with the British people,” Clegg said. “This too, is a red line. But it is also a means to an end. It is a guarantee to the British public that the government will balance the books, following a clear timetable, and do so fairly.

“Let me tell you what will lie at the heart of it: a commitment to balance the books in a timely fashion and in a fair way. And a clear commitment to our world-class public services, including the money that our nurseries, schools and colleges need.”

Clegg acknowledged that he could not “cross every t and dot every i” of the stability budget before the election, but said it would “calm jittery markets; keep interest rates low; keep Britain on track; and show the British people how we will finish the job fairly and continue to support our public services”.

Tuesday’s announcement was an attempt to firm up the message, central to the Liberal Democrat election campaign, that they would act as a moderating influence on either of the two biggest parties in coalition.

Clegg has said that he will be announcing further non-negotiable policies in the days running up to polling day on 7 May.

The announcement was made the morning after the deputy prime minister set out for the first time a Lib Dem policy that would be non-negotiable in any coalition deal. Speaking on the party’s campaign bus on Monday, Clegg said the Lib Dem commitment to increase per-pupil spending for two- to 19-year-olds in real terms over the next parliament was non-negotiable and would have to be included in any coalition deal.

“As the outcome of the election appears increasingly uncertain and the risk of instability immediately afterwards appears increasingly worrisome, I have decided I think we need to be increasingly clear and certain and categorical with people about what the Liberal Democrats will do after 7 May come hell or high water if people vote for the Liberal Democrats,” he said.

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Clegg said his party would not accept either of the two biggest parties’ plans on education spending. The Conservative party has promised to maintain per-pupil spending at current levels for five- to 16-year-olds, amounting to a real-terms cut, whereas the Labour party has pledged to protect the education budget in real terms but has not accounted for the 460,000 extra pupils expected to enter the education system over the next parliament.

The Liberal Democrats say they would increase education spending from £49.6bn to £55.3bn by the end of the next parliament, representing £5bn more than Conservative plans and £2.5bn more than Labour.

The Liberal Democrat leader admitted he had previously been “quite reluctant to talk about the language of ‘deal-breakers’ and ‘red lines’ and so on” but that in the late stages of the election campaign the party needed to set out what its deal-breakers would be.

“We’ve always been quite open about the fact there are some sort of Premier League policies and others [that] don’t assume quite the same significance,” he said. “But I really don’t want that to lead you to the conclusion that somehow we are indifferent to the other policies. We will fight very hard obviously to decant as much of our manifesto into any coalition agreement as we very successfully did last time.”