How Cameron misled on cuts in his Marr interview

PM is giving the false impression that most of the pain lies in the past. 

In January 2010, after George Osborne's promise of an "age of austerity" had dented the Tories' popularity, David Cameron reassured voters that there would be no "swingeing cuts" in the first year of a Conservative government. Today, at the start of another election year, he sought to play a similar role. After Labour's repeated attacks on the Tories for planning "extreme" and "ideological" cuts (that would reduce spending to its lowest level as a share of GDP since the 1930s), he insisted on the Marr show that his party's plans were "moderate, sensible and reasonable". He rejected the OBR's statement that 60 per cent of the cuts are still to come and argued that £12bn of reductions to welfare would limit the damage to departments.

Cameron's pitch may have been politically astute, but it was riddled with evasions. He rejected the OBR figure on the grounds that it ignored the cuts that Osborne had already announced for 2015-16. But while these cuts have been set out, not a single one has been implemented. Cameron is giving the false impression that the pain already lies in the past.

Read more...