George Osborne is due to address the Conservative conference later on Monday
Chancellor George Osborne is expected to say his plans to cut the UK’s debt are a “means to an end [of] prosperity for all” when he addresses the Conservative conference.
He is expected to say Labour’s proposal for reducing spending more slowly meant their cuts “wouldn’t be smaller – they would be bigger and last longer”.
Mr Osborne, whose speech comes two weeks before the spending review settting out proposed cuts, will also stress measures to get Britain’s “economy moving again”.
He is expected to say that if he now adopted Labour policy there would be “market turmoil, the flight of investors… the return of crippling instability, Britain on the brink”.
Mr Osborne is expected to add that the UK is already paying £120m debt interest every day to foreign governments “so they can build the schools and hospitals for their own citizens that we aren’t able to afford for ours”.
He will contrast his action “in the national interest” with new Labour leader Ed Miliband’s policy designed for the “vested interests” of the “trade union leaders who put him where he is”.
And Mr Osborne will claim that not only a string of global and British economic and business organisations agree with him, but also “one of the Miliband brothers, Tony Blair and the British people”.
Mr Osborne’s speech comes the day after Prime Minister David Cameron indicated that some universal benefits – such as child benefit – could face cuts to help fund long-term welfare changes.
The chancellor, who has spent weeks embroiled in negotiations with ministers facing departmental budget cuts of up to 40%, will seek to stress the future benefits of tackling the deficit.
He is expected to say there would be spending in a “green investment bank”, in transport schemes and in bringing in the pupil premium “so that the poorest in our country have access to the kind of education currently only available to the richest”.
“Britain has no divine right to be one of the richest countries in the world… we will do everything to make Britain one of the most competitive places in the world to do business,” he will add.
Mr Osborne is set to add: “The hard economic choices we make are but a means to an end, and that end is prosperity for all.
“The foundations of a strong economy don’t rest alone on the decisions of ministers… they come from the most basic human instincts of all. The aspiration to have a better life, to get a better job, to give your children a better future.”
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