Chris Leslie tells Labour: 'There's nothing left-wing about running a deficit'

 
Tough talking: Labour's Chris Leslie
Robin de Peyer3 April 2014
WEST END FINAL

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Labour is ready to slash public spending in a bid to balance the books if it wins the election in 2015, the Shadow Chief Treasury Secretary has insisted.

Chris Leslie warned "there's nothing left-wing about running a deficit" in one of the strongest indications yet that Labour will unveil a raft of spending cuts in a bid to restore economic credibility.

Acknowledging the "enormous" scale of the challenge of ridding the country of the deficit, Mr Leslie said "everything has to be on the table" to stamp out wasteful spending in Whitehall.

"From a centre-left perspective we’ve got to realise it’s in our core philosophy to want to live within our means and to want to achieve equilibrium between the income that you have and the expenditure that you have," he said in an interview with The House magazine.

He warned that his savings plan "might not necessary be to everybody's taste" - but insisted a tough approach is necessary to ensure government spending is in surplus as soon as possible.

In a fresh bid to try to persuade voters to trust Labour on the economy, Mr Leslie also said he would not rule out merging government departments in the pursuit of savings.

He added: "For those of us that care about public services the other challenge is to prove that you can do deficit reduction but in a fairer way.

"It’s got to be about not being afraid to push the boundaries in a different way. The more I look at government spending the more I think this is possible to do. But it will require some pretty tough choices."

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