The Tories will take Britain ‘back to the 1930s’ with their level of public spending, according to Oldham MP Debbie Abrahams.
Chancellor George Osborne unveiled the coalition’s final budget earlier this week which included raised income tax allowances however, not everyone was pleased with Mr Osborne’s ‘roof fixing’.
Ms Abrahams, MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, said: “George Osborne is simply promising more of the same with massive cuts planned for the next three to four years that will be even deeper and more damaging to public services, like the NHS, police and defence, than the austerity measures have been over the last five years.
“Make no mistake the Tories are planning extreme cuts for the next Parliament which would take Britain back to 1930s levels of public spending; a time before we even had the NHS.”
During the budget speech, Mr Osborne said: “This is for Great Britain, the come back country.
“The sun is starting to shine, so we’ll fix the roof.”
The UK grew 2.6% in 2014, faster than any other advanced economy, but missing out on its 3% target predicted last year.
However Ms Abrahams has warned the chancellor’s plans will only benefit the ‘privileged few’ and not ‘ordinary families’.
She said: “When the Chancellor speaks about a recovery it’s a recovery for the privileged few, not the majority, leaving ordinary families’ wage packets £1,600 a year worse off since 2010.
“The Tories pledged they’d balance the books by 2015. But they are on course to break this promise, with the deficit set to be £75 billion next year and they will borrow over £200 billion more than they planned.”
Ed Balls, shadow chancellor, said Labour would reverse the plan for deeper spending cuts in the next three years than the last five.
Ms Abrahams added: “Labour will balance the books where this Government has failed. We will cut the deficit every year while securing the future of the NHS and none of our manifesto commitments will require additional borrowing, with every spending and tax commitment in our manifesto will be fully funded.”
The MP claimed Labour would ‘make different and fairer choices’ sharing the burden fairly. By clamping down on tax avoiding and reversing the Tories’ tax cut for millionaires and introducing a Mansion tax on houses worth over £2m to ‘help save and transform the NHS’.
“We’ll tackle the cost-of-living crisis with stronger and more balanced growth, including with an £8 minimum wage and support for businesses who pay the living wage,” she said.
“We’ll scrap the bedroom tax; and address the root causes of increased welfare spending by getting 200,000 homes built a year. But we are also prepared to make tough decisions like scrapping the Winter Fuel Allowance for the wealthiest 5% of pensioners.”
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