COMRADE BROWNSKI CAUGHT IN ANOTHER LIE.. By James Chapman Gordon Brown was accused of misleading the nation over spending cuts last night as a leaked document revealed plans for the tightest squeeze since the 1970s. The Budget papers, marked ‘confidential’, showed public spending would have to be slashed by almost 10 per cent to meet Labour’s pledge to halve the national debt. The only other option would be to raise taxes by £29billion - or £930 per family - every year, according to economists at the authoritative Institute for Fiscal Studies. The leaked document also forecast that benefit payments and spiralling debt interest will account for more than one pound in every three the Government spends in four years’ time. Tories said the Treasury documents showed that while the Prime Minister was accusing them of planning 10 per cent cuts, his officials were proposing the same. David Cameron accused Mr Brown of a ‘cover-up’ and said his integrity was on the line. Officials were furious the documents had been passed by a mole to the Tories in the most serious Treasury leak for years and launched an inquiry. Revelations in the 22-page document, prepared in April ahead of Chancellor Alistair Darling’s Budget, included: ■ Proposals for a total cut in spending of 9.3 per cent over the next four years; ■ Interest payments on the national debt are expected to double to £63billion by 2013-14, more than the schools budget; ■ Social security payments are forecast to hit £193billion by 2013-14, nearly 12 per cent of national income; ■ A catastrophic slump in income tax receipts that appears permanent. Mole: A copy of the HM Treasury report leaked to the Conservative Party The IFS said the Treasury projections showed the entire rise in spending as a share of national income under 12 years of Labour would have to be wiped out. Robert Chote, head of the IFS, said: ‘It does underline that there has been something of a gap between the Government’s rhetoric and its arithmetic since the Budget.’ He added: ‘We are looking to have to cut public spending by 3 per cent a year in real terms. ‘We haven’t seen anything like that since the 1970s.’ The leak was a major coup for the Conservatives, but it will also put them under pressure to spell out the deeper cuts necessary to meet their pledge to cut Britain’s deficit faster than Labour. The row came a day after the Prime Minister conceded some cuts would be necessary in a speech to union leaders. He had previously branded the Tories the party of ‘10 per cent cuts’ and insisted Labour would keep on investing. Mr Cameron stopped short of accusing Mr Brown of lying, but said: ‘Let me make it clear - they’re not wrong to be planning cuts, they’re wrong to try and cover up their plans for cuts. ‘This is about honesty. This is about trust. This is about not taking people for fools.’ Shadow Chancellor George Osborne, who obtained the document in a ‘brown envelope’, went further, saying: ‘This is about Gordon Brown misleading the House of Commons, not telling the public the truth about his own Budget.’ Downing Street insisted Mr Brown’s remarks had not been misleading, since ministers had postponed setting out detailed spending plans beyond 2011 because of uncertainties over the economy.Leaked Treasury papers show Gordon ‘Mr 10%’ Brown misled the nation over cuts,
say Tories
Last updated at 7:30 AM on 17th September 2009
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