Turmoil if cuts scrapped: Osborne

Osborne: “This is an enormously tricky situation.”

Chancellor George Osborne has warned there would be “financial turmoil” if he abandoned cuts and tax rises.

Mr Osborne told the BBC no politician liked cutting spending and increasing taxes, but he was trying to clear up the “mess” Labour left.

The chancellor said: “I feel every day a huge responsibility to get these decisions right for Britain.”

He suggested union laws could be changed – as a last resort – if there were a wave of strikes.

In an interview on the BBC Politics Show, Mr Osborne spoke of the responsibility to make the right decisions.

“This is an enormously tricky situation that we’ve been bequeathed as a new government,” he said.

And he added that he was fulfilling his responsibility to the best of his ability.

Earlier in the week union leaders met in London to discuss co-ordinated protests in the face of what they see as “deep and rapid” cuts in spending, but stopped short of announcing strike ballots.

On Friday Mr Osborne said he was as determined to fight “the forces of stagnation”, including the unions, as he was to tackle the budget deficit.

He reiterated his position that there could be changes in union laws.

“We are prepared to consider changes to the law around strikes – as a last resort – but I hope we never get there, because I hope we can have a mature, grown-up conversation.

“I completely understand that trade unions want to represent the interests of their members, but the interests of their members is that jobs are created and prosperity returns to our country. “

Watch The Politics Show on BBC1 at 1200 GMT on Sunday.

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