Johnson opposes spending review ‘slash and burn’
By politics.co.uk staff
Alan Johnson has insisted Labour has a “huge and fundamental” disagreement with the Conservatives over the comprehensive spending review announced yesterday.
Beginning the long campaign against the government’s £81 billion spending cuts, the shadow chancellor said his party would not have implemented the “slash-and-burn” approach taken by the coalition government.
Yesterday Mr Johnson accused George Osborne of taking a “reckless gamble” with the economy.
He accused many on the Tory benches of being ideologically attracted to making the state smaller.
But this morning the shadow chancellor admitted he did not believe Mr Osborne or anyone in the government had this attitude.
“I don’t accuse them all of that ideological bent, but you only have to read certain newspapers to realise what the position of many fundamental Conservatives is,” he told the Today programme.
“What Cameron has tried to do is rebrand the Conservative party. I think most people see yesterday from a budget which is increasingly been shown to be unfair, unwise and I think even untruthful… as a return to what they expect from the Conservative party.”
Suggestions that the Tories had backed Labour’s spending plans until the 2008 financial crisis did not mean there was no real differences between the two parties, Mr Johnson insisted.
“It starts from the very fact of the deficit itself,” he continued.
“Yes, we stepped into spending money when the private sector had seized up… the Conservatives opposed that. And now we believe that actually bringing down the deficit needs to be steady, needs to be sure. This slash and burn approach is something we wouldn’t do.”
Mr Johnson is not the only figure on the left preparing for a staunch campaign against the government’s cuts. Some more militant trade unions like the Rail and Maritime Transport (RMT) union are threatening industrial action, while broader strikes organised by the TUC remain a possibility.
Mr Johnson said RMT general secretary Bob Crow was from the “Planet Zog” and called on the TUC to avoid strikes.
“They need to persuade the British public and tap into the British public’s concerns,” he urged.
