Brown: Trust me on spending
Thursday, 2 July 2009 12:00 AM
By politics.co.uk staff
Gordon Brown has attempted to head off Tory attacks on his honesty with a pledge to the electorate that he can be trusted on spending.
"I have always told the truth," he told the BBC.
"I have always told people as it is.
"I have also explained we have a deficit reduction plan for the future. But you cannot do that without growth and employment in your economy.
"The honest thing to do is to say we have to get back to growth and jobs. The dishonest thing is to say this will happen without taking any action at all."
The prime minister has been on the backfoot in the ongoing row over public spending, with David Cameron doing him real damage on the issue during yesterday's PMQs.
The Tory leader called on Mr Brown to acknowledge Treasury figures showing total spending would fall after 2011.
The PM's response, which said there would be a zero per cent rise in 2013/14, prompted jubilant laughter on the Conservative benches and despair among Labour MPs.
In an interview with Nick Robinson, Mr Brown said he would cut back-office and administrative functions in a bid to meet debt-cutting targets. It appears to be the first time the PM has mentioned cuts of any sort.
"We want to get resources to the front line, to the police, hospitals and schools," he said.
Mr Brown has desperately tried to create one of his favoured 'dividing lines' against the Tories on the issue cuts, by framing Labour as the party of spending and the Tories as the party of cuts.
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