Howard attacks Labour on waste
Speaking today Michael Howard said he was determined to cut down on waste “So that services can be improved and Labour’s third term tax rises avoided.”
In a sideswipe at Gordon Brown’s Budget promise to cut 18,000 civil service jobs, he accused the Chancellor of deception, saying that when the small print was read: “We found he will also carry on recruiting them. And if the current rate of recruitment continues, it will more than outdo the number he is cutting! Then we discovered that 18,000 of the cuts the Chancellor has boasted about were actually announced two years ago. And never carried out.”
Michael Howard obviously believes that the Blair government is vulnerable among the public on waste, as a number of surveys have revealed that the public are cynical about the extra benefits that have accrued from higher public spending.
Stating that the Conservatives would be different, Michael Howard said: “The number of civil servants fell by over a third under the Conservatives. Under Labour the number is up. In fact 511 extra civil servants were hired every week last year.”
Labour though is keen to portray the Conservatives as a party that would in fact make damaging cuts in public spending rather than cut waste. Minister Paul Boateng claimed last week that the Conservatives would cut public spending by £18 million which he claimed would mean “devastating cuts to law and order, defence, pensions, transport and local government, driving the council tax up and cutting vital services.”
