Party Lines: October 20th

By Mark Ferguson / @markfergusonuk

The Comprehensive Spending Review dominated the news, and with so many cuts there was plenty for Labour politicians to talk about. Alan Johnson challenged the government’s claim to be acting fairly, Angela Eagle wondered where the growth was, Andy Burnham labelled the pupil premium a “complete con”, Ed Balls said Labour would need to stick up for the law-abiding public, and John Healey claimed that Cameron has abandoned his plans to protect the NHS from cuts.

Speaking this evening, shadow chancellor Alan Johnson said that the Comprehensive Spending Review is “unravelling fast”, as it becomes clear that the cuts are not as ‘fair’ as was earlier suggested:

“This Spending Review is unravelling fast and revealing broken promises and empty words. Buried in the detail of the government’s plans are broken NHS promises by David Cameron, a squeeze on families double what the banks are being asked to pay and serious unanswered questions on how many jobs will be lost and how much the redundancies will cost the taxpayer.”

“The coalition claim today’s announcement is fair, it is not. The Treasury’s own figures show the poorest in society will pay more to reduce the deficit than almost anyone else.”

Speaking to the BBC, Chief Secretary to the Treasury Angela Eagle said that there is “no sign” of a growth policy in today’s statement, and accused Osborne of making children pay more than bankers:

“There’s no sign in the statement of anything resembling a growth policy. This takes a huge and risky gamble when the world economic situation is actually very uncertain.”

“I don’t think there’s any way that a Labour government would have made choices that would have had children paying more than bankers.”

Andy Burnham attacked Clegg over the ‘pupil premium’ calling it a “complete con”, after it was revealed to be coming from inside the schools budget, rather than separate from it:

“George Osborne’s words are already unravelling. The small print shows that he has sold out our children. The much vaunted pupil premium turns out to be a complete con.”

“It does not come from outside the schools budget as the coalition agreement promised – we find out today that it is to be recycled from within it, creating huge winners and losers among schools.”

“Nick Clegg has failed to secure his “reddest of red lines” in another huge broken promise to our young people. He has chosen a power premium for himself and his friends over a pupil premium for our children.”

Yvette Cooper focussed on the disproportionate impact that the coalition’s cuts will have on women:

“Once again the government is hitting women much harder than men, and families with children hardest of all. Women are harder hit by the cuts in pension credit, working tax credit, child care support and the cuts in public sector jobs.”

“Cutting jobs for women and help for women to work is crazy – it is bad for the economy, increases child poverty and will end up costing us more. It also makes it much harder for parents to balance work and family life and shows the government really doesn’t get the pressures working families face.”

In an interview with the BBC, Ed Balls was keen to highlight the security concerns raised by the substantial cuts to the home office and police numbers, saying:

“This is not only a spending review which puts jobs at risk it’s also one which puts the safety of our communities at risk. To see public safety be put in jeopardy in this way, I’m afraid it’s only the Labour Party who are sticking up for public safety. On the issue of policing Teresa May has failed completely”.

In a statement this evening, Balls said that it will now fall to Labour to defend the law-abiding public against “reckless cuts”:

“The Home Secretary has abjectly failed to fight the corner of the police in these Spending Review negotiations and it will fall to the Labour Party to stand up for the law-abiding public against these reckless cuts.”

John Healey argued that Cameron’s cuts amount to a reversal of the Tory promise to protect the NHS from cuts:

“The figures released today suggest David Cameron has abandoned both his public pledge and the promise in the coalition agreement to protect the NHS from budget cuts. The government has given the health service a cash standstill from 2010-11 to 2011-12 by shifting the baseline from which they make their calculations. The NHS is now looking at no real-terms increase in its funding over the spending period, at a time when our health service is under ever-increasing pressures from an ageing population.”

And Douglas Alexander sought to bring to light one of the most crucial realities of the CSR in an interview with the BBC – if you lengthen dole queues you will have rising welfare costs:

“Our argument is straightforward, if you have lengthening dole queues you have rising welfare costs rather than falling welfare costs. As the IFS have confirmed, once again, as we saw in the budget, we’ve had measures that are deeply regressive in their impact on the poorest in society.”