Mythbusting the rhetoric on public spending |

Thursday 11th June 2009 | 13:07

Mythbusting the rhetoric on public spending

With each party carrying their own set of spending statistics, PoliticsHome has turned to its cross-party group of experts and observers to bust open some of the favourite myths of the main parties.

On the issue of public spending, the voting public is being asked not to choose between ideas or visions, but between competing interpretations of complex financial projections and "facts."

PoliticsHome turned to the Phi100 panel - a balanced group of 100 experts and observers at the highest level of politics who vote anonymously and so can speak their minds - to bust open some of the myths of each of the parties and establish the terms of the debate. Its conclusions were unmistakable:

1. There would be cuts from either party

The overwhelming majority of MPs, commentators, think tank heads and journalists on all sides broadly accept the IFS projections on public spending. Despite the Government's protestations, let it be taken as consensus: Labour's own Budget figures indicate a cut in spending in real terms after 2011.

2. The Conservative IHT plan does not stack up

No-one except a minority of Tories believes the Conservatives' claim that their inheritance tax cut will not cost anything. Let it also be taken as consensus: the "fully funded package" of IHT and non-doms does not stack up.

3. A Tory government would cut significantly more

Regardless of the figures and the supposed dividing lines, the consensus is clear: both a Conservative and a Labour government would be forced to make real terms cuts in public spending post 2011, and a Conservative government would cut public spending more than a Labour government in the years after 2011. The majority of experts agree the difference would be significant.

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