Opposition leader tries to boost economic credibility before election
By William James LONDON (Reuters) - Ed Miliband, leader of Britain's opposition Labour party, sought to rally support for his economic policy on Thursday, five months before an election, by portraying his rivals' planned spending cuts as "extreme" and driven by a heartless ideology. Although neck-and-neck in opinion polls with Prime Minister David Cameron's right-leaning Conservatives, Labour's economic competence rating is sharply lower, with rivals often telling voters the party mishandled the 2008 financial crisis and left behind the biggest peacetime deficit since World War Two. If the left-wing Labour party won power again, it would borrow and spend and rack up more debts, they say. Miliband sought to change that narrative by seizing on disquiet and scepticism over the scale of spending cuts set out last week by Conservative finance minister George Osborne. Official forecasts showed state spending could fall to its lowest level since the 1930s under Osborne's plans to eliminate the budget deficit by 2018/19 by cutting spending without raising taxes. "They have finally been exposed ... for who they really are: not compassionate Conservatives at all but extreme and ideological, committed to a dramatic shrinking of the state and public services," Miliband said in a speech to business groups in London's financial district. "Britain needs common sense spending reductions, not slash and burn," he said, adding that public services would disintegrate under the Conservatives' plans. Miliband's intervention comes as Cameron tries to refocus debate on the economy and away from immigration, with Britain facing up to five more years of fiscal consolidation to close a 5 percent budget deficit and start reducing a 1.4 trillion pound (1.40 trillion pounds) national debt. Osborne's proposals have come under pressure after a think-tank said the scale of his proposed cuts could radically alter Britain's public service provision. A ComRes poll for ITV News on Wednesday showed 33 percent of voters thought that cutting spending to 1930s levels was a good thing; 26 percent were against the idea. However, the poll also showed 52 percent backing a slower pace of cuts. Miliband looked to gain from that divided opinion by casting his previously-announced austerity plan, which aims to balance the country's books at a slower pace and use tax rises to mitigate the need for spending cuts, as a fairer approach. In response to the speech, Business Minister Matt Hancock said Labour would continue to amass debt. "This risk to the economic recovery is exactly why Ed Miliband simply isn’t up to the job," he said. (Editing by Toby Chopra)
