Scale Of Spending Cuts Laid Bare In TV Debate

(Telegraph) – THE TRUE SCALE of the public spending pain that awaits whichever party wins the election was laid bare by the unanimous verdict of the Chancellor and his Conservative and Liberal Democrat counterparts in a live television debate.

During the debate on Channel 4 Alistair Darling, George Osborne and Vince Cable were asked how deep cuts will need to be to restore Britain’s economic credibility. They all agreed that the cuts would have to be tougher than those imposed by Baroness Thatcher in the 1980s.

The discussion was a curtain-raiser for the party leaders’ ground-breaking television debates that will take place once the election is called.

The Chancellor last week surprised other Labour figures when he allowed himself to make the comparison with the Conservative government of the 1980s.

All three men are likely to be privately happy with their performance but no one managed to land a knockout blow.

There had been concerns from some in Tory ranks that Mr Osborne would struggle to make an impact, but in the 50 minute debate he stood his ground on the key economic issues and made Mr Darling shift uneasily over Labour’s plans for a death tax.

Mr Cable, who claimed he was the only politician of the three to have experience of industry and the only one to have warned of the impending crash, was able to tap into the audience’s apparent distrust of the other two parties. He was applauded and got one of the very rare laughs from the Channel 4 audience.

Mr Osborne had to withstand what appeared at times to be an attempt by Mr Darling and Mr Cable to gang-up on him. Mr Cable, who got more applause from the studio audience than his two counterparts from the main parties, got very personal in his final comments.

The Liberal Democrat treasury spokesman warned that Mr Osborne and his party wanted “another chance to get their noses in the trough and reward their rich friends.”

He added that the Conservatives has “wasted” the revenues from North Sea gas and had “presided over two recessions.”

But Mr Osborne kept his cool and made a direct appeal to voters saying they would be able to make the choice between change or more of the same after 13 years of Labour failure.

He said: “They [Labour] took one of the strongest countries in Europe and we are now one of the weakest.”

And he hit back at Mr Cable, by pointing out that the choice was Conservative or Labour because “there is not going to be a Liberal Democrat government.”

The shadow chancellor has been under pressure in recent weeks to show that he can articulate the true scale of the problems facing the country and translate it into vote winning rhetoric. He repeatedly referred to how it was the “audience’s money” and “the people at home” who were paying for Labour mismanagement of the economy.

But the debate was also characterised by a number of areas on which the three parties seemed in agreement. They included the new 50p tax rate for top earners, reform of public sector pensions the need to keep options open on future VAT increases.

Mr Darling attempted to seize on Mr Osborne’s decision yesterday to say that Whitehall cost savings would be used to reverse part of Labour’s planned National Insurance rise.

The Chancellor said Mr Osborne was taking an “irresponsible risk” and accused him of showing “poor, poor judgement.”

In the immediate aftermath of the debate Ladbrokes cut the odds on the Conservatives winning a majority from 4-6 to 8-13.

But in a sign that Mr Cable was probably the winner of the debate his odds on delivering the next Budget – as a Chancellor in a coalition government – were cut from 16-1 to 12-1.

David Williams of Ladbrokes said: “Vince put in the expected wily performance, but Osborne not falling down as some had predicted was a plus point for the Conservatives.”

Mr Cable also won the largest share of the Channel 4 viewers’ cote as the show came to a close. Mr Cable received 36 per cent of the vote, Mr Darling 32 per cent and Mr Osborne 31 per cent.