Balls brands Osborne ‘extreme’

Ed Balls during a recent speech in Leeds

The Shadow Chancellor will seek to present George Osborne as an economic extremist by suggesting that the Conservatives’ spending plans will involve bigger cuts than are proposed in any other advanced economy and are the most severe since the war.

Mr Balls will claim the cuts would take social care away from 280,000 people and reduce police numbers by almost 30,000 “at a time when the terror threat is increasing and child protection under great pressure”.

He will say: “These are extreme, risky and unprecedented cuts to policing and social care which many will see as totally undeliverable, even by this Chancellor.”

The Morley and Outwood MP will contrast Labour’s spending proposals as a “tough, but balanced and fair plan to deliver rising living standards and get the deficit down”.

Mr Balls’ speech follows warnings from the retiring president of the Association of Chief Police Officers that the tipping point where falling police numbers starts to threaten public safety is close.

Sir Hugh Orde told the Observer taking police off the streets is a clear risk in the fight against extremism.

He said: “The critical element, it seems to me, with dealing with people who will start to behave differently in their communities is the confidence in that community to speak to the local cops. If the cops aren’t there and that relationship has not been built we won’t get the intelligence.”

Asked whether police would have adequate resources to protect the public in the context of cuts, he said: “In my professional judgement, the answer is no.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “While we acknowledge that the police funding settlement is challenging, there is no question that the police will still have the resources to do their important work. What matters is how officers are deployed, not how many of them there are in total.

As the countdown to next week’s pre-election Budget begins, the Liberal Democrats will also flesh out their economic policies today with a five point plan to make the British economy the biggest in Europe over the next 20 years.

Nick Clegg will promise to protect Government spending on science and increase it in real terms once the deficit has been eradicated.

The Lib Dems will also promise to double what the Government invests in innovation over the course of the next parliament.

Speaking alongside Business Secretary Vince Cable, the Deputy Prime Minister will say: “We believe that by building a strong, modern, open economy we can become the powerhouse of Europe.

“We can grow faster than both France and Germany, overtaking them as the largest economy in Europe in 20 years’ time.

“That is hugely ambitious but absolutely possible. To do it we need two things: to secure the recovery; and to put in place an ambitious long-term plan that harnesses and encourages the skills and dynamism of British workers and British businesses.”

To meet the Lib Dems’ target, the UK economy would need to grow annually by an average of one per cent more than Germany over the next 20 years. On current forecasts, the British economy is already due to overtake that of France in the coming years.