Nick Clegg tonight branded Ed Miliband’s debt-reduction plan “reckless” in a bid to lay down the law for any future coalition talks with Labour, saying that if he is in the next government he will stick to the coalition’s current target.
It comes just weeks after shadow chancellor Ed Balls said a Labour government would push it back by three years.
The clash sets the scene for a future flash-point between the parties which many people expect to form a coalition after next year’s election.
But Mr Clegg was also set to condemn the Tories, accusing them of singling out the poor instead of the rich to bear the burden of repaying national debt.
Speaking at Mansion House this evening, he said: “Ed Balls has now confirmed that Labour think they can put all this off until the end of the next parliament.
“Borrowing more, piling on more debt, diminishing the confidence of our creditors. But it’s reckless and it threatens the stability that’s been achieved.”
The coalition currently aims to get debt falling as a proportion of GDP by 2016/17, whereas Ed Balls has said he wants that target pushed back to 2020.
Mr Clegg also hit out at George Osborne for wanting to slash more money from the welfare budget.
He said: “The Conservative Party has ruled out asking the very wealthy to pay even just a bit more in tax to help the ongoing fiscal effort.
“Instead they are going to find all of the necessary savings over and above Whitehall cuts by reducing the support we give to the working age poor.
“The Conservatives have made a deliberate decision that this one group – the working age poor – should be singled out for especially tough sacrifices.”
Mr Clegg was also to say he was pushing the Tories to raise the personal allowance by a further £500 in this year’s Budget.
Read More
In the next parliament Mr Clegg has said he wants to raise the personal allowance to the extent that no one pays income tax on the first £12,500 they earn.
