Chris Leslie: The black hole in David Cameron's spending plans

Chris Leslie, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, criticises the Conservatives for not spelling out how they would pay for their tax cuts. Yesterday we witnessed the Tories sacrifice any claim to economic credibility. David Cameron stood up in Birmingham and announced £7.2 billion of spending commitments – without a hint of where the money to pay for them would come from.And in the 24 hours since he delivered his speech not a single minister, including former Treasury minister Nicky Morgan, has been able to set out any more detail of how the billions of pounds needed to pay for these pie-in-the-sky tax cuts in in six years’ time will be raised.This is a Tory Party with a record of giving with one hand but taking away much, much more with the other. For all their rhetoric about what they have done to the Personal Allowance in this Parliament, figures from the Institute for Fiscal Studies show that families will be on average £974 worse off by the time of the General Election, as a result of all tax and benefit changes since 2010. So will the Tories raise VAT on families and pensioners again, as they did in 2010, to pay for these changes? The Tory Chairman, Grant Shapps, has today refused to rule out another VAT bombshell.Before the last General Election David Cameron claimed: “You can’t talk about tax reduction unless you can show how it’s paid for, the public aren’t stupid”. George Osborne said his “definition of a tax cut” was “one where you show how you’re going to pay for it”. Yesterday’s speech shows that they are both now taking the British people for fools. As Jonathan Portes, Director of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said this morning, there’s a “big black hole in the Conservatives’ spending plans.”From a party that consistently, and wrongly, accuses Labour of making unfunded spending commitments this is extraordinary. In contrast to the Tories, Labour has clearly set out how our plan to raise living standards and boost our economy will be fully funded. We now know why the Tories have blocked Labour’s call for the independent Office for Budget Responsibility to audit party manifestos ahead of next year’s General Election – they can’t stack up their own figures. It’s no wonder the Financial Times is today questioning the economic credibility of the Tories.The reality is that the Tories made just one firm commitment this week – to cut tax credits by hundreds of pounds for millions of hardworking people while keeping a £3 billion tax cut for the richest one per cent. This is a policy which they themselves admit will hit families hard.The Tories said on Monday that a one earner family with two children on £25,000 a year will lose almost £500 as a result of the freezes announced by George Osborne on Monday. But this same family will only see ITS income rise by £176 in 2020 as a result of the changes to the Personal Allowance announced yesterday. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, who earns £142,500 a year, and Cabinet Ministers on £134,565 will see their incomes go up £132 a year by 2020/21 as a result of these changes. How is that fair?What we have seen this week from the Tory Conference this week is a Party completely unable to tackle the cost-of-living crisis facing families, which has seen wages after inflation fall by over £1,600 since 2010.Only Labour will make Britain work for everyday working people, rewarding the hard work they do and saving the NHS they rely on. Our plan will cut taxes for millions on middle and low incomes with a lower 10p starting rate of tax and save and transform the NHS with 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more GPs. And we've said how we will pay for it. Our NHS Time to Care Fund will be funded by asking the wealthiest to pay a little more, tackling tax avoidance and asking tobacco firms to pay their fair share. This is a commitment the Tories won't match.Britain faces a choice next year - a choice between the Tories who will hit hardworking people with further cuts to tax credits and the Labour Party, with a costed plan to build a better Britain.