The coalition Government’s cuts will hit the poor hardest, according to a report which came as the first signs emerged of public dissatisfaction with the speed and level of the cuts.
A Populus poll has found that only one voter in five supports the coalition’s aim of reducing the budget deficit by nearly three-quarters by 2015. More than a third prefer Labour’s pre-election plan to nearly halve the deficit over five years.
The news comes after the TUC leadership and its constituent unions lined up to oppose any cuts in the foreseeable future. Chancellor George Osborne is expected to unveil cuts of between 25 and 40 per cent to government departments in next month’s spending review.
A report by the TUC and Unison this week, which studied how different households use state-funded services, found that the poorest 10 per cent would lose services worth over 20 per cent of their earnings, as a result of plans to slash spending by £34 billion by 2013. By contrast, the richest 10 per cent would lose 13 times less.
TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the findings contradicted the Government’s promise to protect the most vulnerable in society, adding: “When their full extent becomes clear, I know the country will join with us in saying no to policies of such eye-watering unfairness.” This was not the time for cuts, he insisted, when asked about tackling the deficit.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka went further: “We do not accept there should be a single job cut, we do not accept there should be a single penny cut”. He called for HM Revenue and Customs to recruit more staff to collect the £27 billion in tax not collected every year.
Labour’s leadership candidates are divided in their response to the deficit. Harriet Harman supported Labour’s plan to reduce it by 2015, telling Congress: “The deficit must be reduced – and we had a robust plan to do that.” David Miliband also backed the plan at a leadership hustings this week. But Ed Miliband said a longer timetable may be necessary and Ed Balls ignored the timetable altogether, saying: “I don’t want to cut, I want to spend.”
