Mandelson shifts ground on spending cuts debate
By Liz Stephens and Alex Stevenson
Peter Mandelson has refused to rule out cuts in some of the government’s flagship programmes as he outlined its spending cuts strategy.
The business secretary gave a speech at the London School of Economics where he announced that resources will be switched from “lower to higher priority areas”.
Although stopping short of mentioning the taboo word “cuts” on the Today programme, Lord Mandelson also said it would be “foolish to rule out anything”, leading some to speculate that high-profile programmes such as Trident or ID cards might be axed.
At the LSE he said: “The choices Labour makes will aim to sustain our investment in the nation’s priorities – an approach of frontline first.
“The public can be assured that Labour’s approach will be based on clear values and principles in order to ensure social fairness, to promote social mobility and find the case for productive social investments in the nation’s future.”
Lord Mandelson’s words are being seen by some as a clear signal that public spending cuts are imminent.
“It would not be right to turn the remarkable and necessary period of catch-up in public service provision over which Labour has presided into some kind of eternal doctrine: that social democracy is about high growth in public spending for its own sake, against which everything else we do is secondary,” he added.
However, the business secretary has categorically denied that “frontline service delivery” will be affected.
Lord Mandelson delivered a scathing attack against David Cameron’s Conservatives party, accusing the Tory leader of “following a policy of concealment, not change”.
“The gap between the early modernising rhetoric of DC and the entrenched instincts of his party has been exposed in their response to the recession,” he said.
The speech comes as the annual Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference takes place in Liverpool. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber warned that cuts in public spending could lead to widespread unemployment and civil unrest.
The government has come under mounting pressure in recent weeks to unveil their strategy for how to halve the estimated £175 billion budget deficit.
Liberal Democrat shadow chief secretary to the Treasury Jeremy Browne said: “With many people still being hit hard by the effects of the recession, it is depressing that all we are seeing from Labour and the Tories is pre-election manoeuvring.
“Labour seem hopelessly confused over their plans, with Downing Street and Peter Mandelson at odds over Trident.”
Gordon Brown is due to address the TUC conference tomorrow.
