11 December 2014 - Ed Miliband to set out plans for deficit cuts
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Ed Miliband vows to wield the axe on public services to balance books
Andrew Grice (The Independent)
Ed Miliband will make a pitch for the political centre ground today by pledging to cut the budgets of most Whitehall departments every year until the nation’s books are balanced. In his most crucial economic speech since becoming Labour leader, he will tackle the party’s lack of credibility on the issue by unveiling a “tough but balanced” approach to clearing the deficit by the end of the 2015-20 parliament.
His shift will be welcomed by Blairite MPs, who have been urging him to say more about where Labour would make painful cuts.
Ed Balls, the shadow Chancellor, has written to Shadow Cabinet members ordering them to spell out how they would reduce their department’s spending every year until the deficit has been eliminated. Only the NHS and overseas aid are exempt from the squeeze, but Labour is likely to pledge to ring-fence the education budget before next May’s general election.
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Plans
Patrick Wintour (The Guardian)
Ed Miliband will seek to capture the middle ground on the deficit on Thursday, saying he will not follow the Tory plan for cutting total public spending to 35% of GDP but will promise to reduce spending in most departments year-on-year until the current deficit is eliminated.
In a speech on Thursday he will claim Labour is engaged in a fight for the soul of Britain, and assert that Tory fiscal plans will mean disintegration of public services.
The coalition is expected to publish a charter on budget responsibility, setting a target date to eliminate the deficit by 2017-18, with a vote on the charter in the new year. Labour has so far said it will cut the deficit “as soon as possible in the next parliament”, but has not committed itself to a specific date.
Miliband is likely to say Labour is, in principle, willing to vote for the charter but will meet the 2017-18 target only if the state of the economy allows it.
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Mission
Staff (BBC News)
Mr Miliband came under fire from his political opponents and from some within his own party for omitting any mention of the deficit from his keynote conference speech in September - which he delivered by memory without autocue or notes.
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said that in setting out his plans on Thursday - five months before May's election - Mr Miliband will seek to convince voters he is serious about eliminating the deficit as soon as possible in the next Parliament.
"Some people think the deficit simply doesn't matter to our mission and should not be our concern," he will say.
"They are wrong. It matters. Because unless there is a strategy for dealing with the deficit, it is working people who will end up paying the price of the economic instability that is created."
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More cuts
Nigel Burton (The Northern Echo)
LABOUR will cut budgets for key Government departments – including local government –year-on-year until the end of the decade, Ed Miliband will announce today.
In a tough message that may alarm party supporters, the Labour leader will order almost all his frontbench team to plan for cuts “until the deficit has been cleared”, which is unlikely to be before 2019.
Aides confirmed those departments will include local government, where town halls in the region are already making huge reductions after Government grants were slashed.
Between 2014 and 2016, councils in the North-East and North Yorkshire are losing £179m, or £1 in every £9 of their ‘spending power’.
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"11 December 2014 - Ed Miliband to set out plans for deficit cuts", La Clé des Langues [en ligne], Lyon, ENS de LYON/DGESCO (ISSN 2107-7029), novembre 2014. Consulté le 23/04/2024. URL: https://cle.ens-lyon.fr/anglais/key-story/archives-revue-de-presse-2014/11-december-2014-ed-miliband-to-set-out-plans-for-deficit-cuts