Events | 2009.09.15
We will make cuts, says Brown
In keynote address to TUC, prime minister says Labour will cut costs, cut inefficiencies, cut unnecessary programmes and cut lower priority budgets
Labour is preparing to scrap government projects and "lower priority budgets" in a bid to protect vital public services that people depend on, Gordon Brown told trade unions today.
As he drew up the dividing lines on spending with the Tories, the prime minister told the TUC in a keynote address that Labour will make the "right choice" for low- and middle-income families.
"Labour will cut costs, cut inefficiencies, cut unnecessary programmes and cut lower priority budgets," Brown said.
"But when our plans are published in the coming months, people will see that Labour will not support cuts in vital frontline services on which people depend. Labour will not put the recovery at risk, protect and improve your frontline services first and make the right choices for low and middle income families in the country."
The Conservatives would make "the wrong choices at the wrong time for the wrong reasons because they have the wrong priorities for Britain", he warned.
Brown claimed his government "faced the Tories down – and we have been shown to have done the right thing by hardworking British families" by spending during the recession.
"But I tell you that we still have a choice to make: the recovery is not automatic and the road to recovery is still fragile. It is being hard won by government making the right choices and could be quickly wrecked by government making the wrong choices.
"People\'s livelihoods and homes and savings are still hanging in the balance, and so today I say to the British people: don\'t allow anyone to put the recovery at risk. There is a fundamental difference between the parties as to how to come through this recession and avoid it being deeper, longer and more damaging."
Brown said that while some wanted to use the recession as an excuse to break promises towards the country\'s poorest, "Labour will not".
He told unions that just as Labour got an agreement to move the economy forward during the crisis, a new agreement was needed to "maintain the road out of recession".
"So be clear – my priorities in the coming weeks and months will be ensuring that jobs are retained, the recovery moves forward, and that we offer people our vision of a fairer, more responsible, greener and more democratic Britain."
Acknowledging unions\' anger at tax evasion by the wealthy, Brown said he would push for a "blacklist of uncooperative tax havens".
He said he would seek to strike an international deal to set limits on bankers\' bonuses. He also promised that he would demand that banks beyond Britain "do what we have done – to isolate their impaired assets and show how they are to be removed."
Brown also contrasted the government\'s commitment to a 50p rate of tax for the wealthiest and the removal of unfair tax relief on high income earners, with the Conservatives\' commitment to lift the inheritance tax threshold.
But in a move set to anger civil service unions, Brown told delegates that the government intended to save up to £500m over the next three years by reforming Whitehall\'s scheme for civil servants\' early retirement packages.
"And so today I tell you we will be saving up to £500m over the next three years by reforming Whitehall early exit scheme pay outs for early retirement. It\'s a scheme that\'s often as much as six times annual pay. These high costs prevent us giving other people jobs and this is not the best way to spend public money. I am calling on all public authorities to make similar reviews of their terms."
Brown contrasted his approach to that of the Conservative party, which he said "would reduce public services at the very time they are needed most, make across-the-board public spending cuts to pay for tax cuts for the wealthiest few, and make different choices about public services because they have different values".
"These would be the wrong choices at the wrong time for the wrong reasons because they have the wrong priorities for Britain."
The speech was broadly welcomed by Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC. He said: "This was a jobs versus cuts speech, and he chose jobs.
"The prime minister understands that deep cuts would choke off what is still a precarious recovery and would threaten a deeper recession that could repeat the social divisions of the 1980s. The dividing lines for the next election got that bit clearer today ... His emphasis on growth to get tax income flowing again and support for measures to make the rich bear a fairer share of the tax burden chime not just with union concerns, but public opinion too."
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/15/gordon-brown-tuc-speech-cuts
