Osborne has ‘ceded the political centre ground to Labour’, says Balls

In an article for the Guardian, Ed Balls, Shadow Chancellor, has outlined how George Osborne has ‘ceded the political centre ground to Labour’.

He explains that in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement it became apparent that loss of tax revenue would continue – as the Government’s deficit reduction plans had been ‘thrown badly off track’ – which will result in further spending cuts in the next parliament.

Balls writes that although Labour will also need to cut public spending if they win next may the difference between the two parties is clear:

Ed Miliband and I do not believe a 35% state can be sustained without causing huge damage to our NHS, policing, defence, local services and economic infrastructure.

Osborne’s increasingly extreme and ideological approach goes far beyond the necessary task of deficit reduction. It is a risky second-term Conservative project to shrink the state – a lurch to the right which has left Labour as the centre-ground alternative.

We will reverse the £3bn a year tax cut the Tories and Lib Dems have given the top 1% of earners, and put saving our NHS at the heart of Labour’s first budget with our plan to raise an extra £2.5bn a year. We will also scrap the winter fuel allowance for the richest pensioners and cap child benefit rises at 1%.

Our review of every pound spent by government is finding savings that can be made in order to better protect frontline services, including £250m in policing and over half a billion in local government. And in the coming weeks my shadow cabinet colleagues will set out further details of the savings they have identified and the reforms they will make.

With the general election only 5 months away, Balls is offering a clear message to the electorate: Labour, unlike the Tories, can be trusted with the economy.