Tories committed to low tax economy says Letwin
A Tory Government would be committed to a low tax economy whilst at the same time raising the bar for improved public services, Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin today said.
He was speaking ahead of next Thursday’s pre-budget report in which Chancellor Gordon Brown will set out the annual assessment of the economy.
Mr Letwin insisted that tax payers’ money was being wasted and not getting to the “frontline”.
“We are not getting value for money at the moment”, Mr Letwin told BBC One’s Breakfast with Frost.
A Conservative government would “thin down the bloated bureaucracy” and redirect funds into areas such as hospital cleanliness, school discipline, police and controlled immigration.
This, he said, would be achieved whilst also giving the tax payers what “they want” – lower taxes.
Mr Letwin confirmed that his spending plans include moves to cut “30,000 bureaucrats” in the NHS.
In doing so, £1.7m would be freed up which could then be directed in to cleaner hospitals, he said.
“The plans, because they are based on that, they provide the ability over a six year period for us to be spending about £35bn less per year, in the sixth year, than Gordon Brown’s plan provide for.”
Mr Letwin, however, assured it is Conservative policy to freeze expenditure and to match Government spending for two years on health and education.
“That definite, that’s absolutely built into my plans.”
“It’s not just health and education”, he added. “It’s also pensions and benefits. We know that we need to keep up pensions and indeed I have announced a plan to raise the basic state pension in line with earnings in order to lift pensioners out of the means tested benefits.”
The Conservatives would also adopt an Australian-style system of quotas in a bid to “control” immigration.
“That is going to save about a thousand million pounds a year out of the immigration and nationality budget.”
Mr Letwin, echoing the words of the new European Union commissioner Peter Mandelson, urged Mr Brown to stop engaging in “exaggerated gloating”.
“The Chancellor has a terrible problem. Every independent economist says the he is borrowing and spending too much and therefore he will have to raise taxes and I don’t think Gordon Brown can plausibly claim otherwise.”
In what could be a blow to the Conservative’s election hopes, Labour appears to have surmounted its mid-term electoral blues and looks set for an historic third term of office with a huge majority, according to a new opinion poll.
The poll for the Independent on Sunday found Michael Howard’s party floundering on 31 per cent, with Labour on 42. The Liberal Democrats were down on a lowly 20 per cent.
Mr Letwin, however, insisted that there is a “lot of underlying disillusionment” with the Government.
“People do feel it’s been all talk, they feel there hasn’t been delivery.’
However, the Shadow Chancellor admitted his party must set out a clear vision mapping the direction they wish to take the country in the run up to the General Election
The public “haven’t yet heard us sufficiently”, Mr Letwin said.
Put to him time is of the essence, Mr Letwin quoted Harold Wilson saying if a week is a long time in politics, then six months will prove ample for the Tories to mount an attack.
The poll carried out by Communicate Research suggested the Tories under Mr Howard were performing less well than under predecessors Iain Duncan Smith in his final days at the helm or William Hague.
The survey found 42 per cent of voters expected the Tories to remain out of power for 10 years or more.
Communicate Research interviewed 1,033 adults by telephone on November 24-25.
