I put it to the shadow chancellor that he would have to make spending cuts deeper than those made by any government since the war (other, that is, than the coalition itself) - deeper than those made by Labour Chancellor Denis Healey in the 1970s and Margaret Thatcher's Tory government in the 1980s.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates that Labour's plans would imply about £18bn cuts to departmental budgets, since spending on pensions, welfare and debt interest is rising at the moment.
Despite this Mr Balls insisted that the government was wrong to save £200m this year (and £400m in the year after) by refusing to give pay rises to 600,000 NHS staff already receiving automatic pay increments. » | Nick Robinson, Political editor | Thursday, March 13, 2014
