"The Conservative leadership took a massive electoral gamble yesterday by offering years of pain to voters in the hope of being rewarded for honestly in facing up to the nation's plight.

"George Osborne heralded an age of austerity as he pledged to freeze the pay of millions of public sector workers, cut benefits enjoyed by the middle classes and cap civil service pensions at £50,000 a year.

"Together the cutbacks would save £23 billion in government spending in a first Tory Parliament.

"The Shadow Chancellor's brutal warning to the country to tighten its belt came after it emerged that plans to raise the retirement age to 66 were being brought forward by ten years."

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