Osborne offers deficit warning as first spending cuts announced

THE Chancellor will claim failure to tackle the deficit in public spending “could bring our country down” today as he reveals four Government departments have agreed to significant cuts.
George Osborne will announce four Government departments have agreed spending cutsGeorge Osborne will announce four Government departments have agreed spending cuts
George Osborne will announce four Government departments have agreed spending cuts

George Osborne will argue that balancing the Government’s books is essential to give families financial security and that the Conservatives’ election win gives him the mandate to make cuts.

In a jibe at former Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Mr Osborne will say “we haven’t abolished boom and bust” and that “we must prepare for whatever the world throws at us”.

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The Chancellor is due to reveal the outcome of the Government’s spending review later this month but today he will announce that four departments have already agreed to cutbacks.

Communities and Local Government, Transport, Environment Food and Rural Affairs and the Treasury will see their day-to-day spending cut by an average of eight per cent a year.

The Ministers in charge of each department will be rewarded with a seat on the committee, known in Whitehall as the “star chamber”, that grills their colleagues on their spending plans.

Despite previous cuts, Mr Osborne will say the country is “still spending too much”.

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“We know that if we don’t control spending, we run the risk of higher mortgage rates and higher taxes – and a loss of confidence in our economy,” he will say.

“And we know for certain that will mean job losses; it will mean businesses closing down; it will mean homes being repossessed. It will mean the livelihoods of working people destroyed.”

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