Osborne: Brown misled MPs on spending
Updated on 16 September 2009
Shadow chancellor George Osborne claims leaked Treasury documents showed Gordon Brown was dishonest about spending plans.
The Conservatives say they have documents that prove the government has been considering spending cuts of around 10 per cent since April.
The prime minister has suggested the Tories would cut spending if they win the next general election while Labour would invest.
But speaking on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning, Osborne claimed the Treasury documents, marked "confidential", projected spending cuts in departmental budgets of almost 9.3 per cent in the four years after 2010.
Osborne said: "These are the internal government projections for spending and they show that the government has been planning since the budget a near 10 per cent cut in departmental budgets.
The leaked documents: Fiscal tables page 1, page 2, page 3
"And of course since the budget we have had Gordon Brown and others on programmes like this saying that there is a choice between Labour investment and Tory cuts and very specifically attacking us for being the people planning 10 per cent cuts."
Interviewed by Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Channel 4 News political correspondent Cathy Newman said: “It is very embarrassing, not just for the cuts themselves but also for the prime minister’s attempts to conceal them.
“It shows the folly of Gordon Brown talking about Labour investment versus Tory cuts – and explains why he junked that line yesterday.”
In his blog discussing the Tory claims, Channel 4 News economics correspondent Faisal Islam writes: "Much of what was implied or left out of the budget is stated in astonishing detail here.
"It is a total disaster for the treasury and the government, but some will argue the Tories have taken a big risk with financial confidence in publishing it.
"The highlights immediately are the implied cuts, as we had reported on the very day of the budget."
