Tories vow to match Labour's spending plans

Shadow Chancellor Michael Portillo insisted today that a Conservative government would match Labour's spending plans on health and education.

Shadow Chancellor Michael Portillo insisted today that a Conservative government would match Labour's spending plans on health and education.

He said Chancellor Gordon Brown's figures were misleading, adding: "As usual, he has not done anything like what he said."

Mr Portillo, speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, said: "He has actually given about £300 million-a-year to each of those, and in the case of health, that's less than a half a percentage point increase in health.

"What he didn't tell you is that his total amount of public spending is unchanged and that over a four-year period he is actually going to spend £5 billion less than he was promising to spend in the autumn.

"So there isn't any extra money. He is, as usual, trying to con people ... there isn't a billion for health, there isn't a billion for education, as usual he's adding lots of figures together, and the spin is absolutely different from the reality, as it always is."

He also insisted the Tories could match Labour's spending plans for health and education.

Mr Portillo said: "It isn't extra money, and therefore there is no problem in matching it ... the total amount of public spending for 2003/4 is £442.6 billion and there has been no change in that.

"What they have done is they have been too incompetent to spend the money this year that they said they were going to spend ... that means they are actually spending less than they promised, and the total amount they are spending three years from now is completely unchanged, and therefore the Conservative Party has no difficulty indeed."

The Liberal Democrats also criticised the Budget.

Parliamentary chairman Malcolm Bruce branded it "a missed opportunity".

Mr Bruce told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "We have had four years of a Labour Government, the first two of which imposed very tight cuts in public spending, and everybody knows that we need to do a great deal more if we are going to get the nurses, the doctors, the police and the boost to pensioners we need.

"And rather than do that, Gordon Brown has carried forward some underspends, spread small amounts of tax cuts across the field and not really given the commitment to sustained investment in improving the public services.

"It's a pre-election Budget when what was needed was an investment Budget."

Interesting? Click here to explore further