Former Sheffield council leader claims Tories out to ‘deceive’ voters on cuts

The Liberal Democrat peer said the Conservatives had first announced £12 billion of savings from welfare spending would be needed in January 2014 but still had to spell out the detail more than 400 days later.

Earlier this week Chancellor George Osborne said the party would set out its welfare spending plans in the summer but Lord Scriven said that was “completely unrealistic” if the Tories had not managed to find the savings in the last 15 months.

In a letter to Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps, Lord Scriven wrote: “The only credible conclusion to draw is that your plan to make £12bn of welfare savings will result in even deeper, needless cuts to key public services, like the police, schools, and adult social care.

“Your refusal to come clean on where you will find the remainder of your welfare savings means that you are seeking to deceive the British public over the scale of cuts you are planning on public services.”