In an internal letter from Number 11 about Rachel Reeves’s spending review the Treasury said “difficult” decisions on budgets will be needed, the Telegraph reported.
The letter from Darren Jones, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, was sent to cabinet ministers in December and detailed that “success will require ruthless prioritisation” of public spending.
The Labour Government has been heavily criticised for already making unpopular cuts in a bid to save money, which included scraping the universal Winter Fuel Payment and continuing to keep the two-child benefit cap last year.
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The Treasury’s letter has been scrutinised by opposition parties as the SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said he “dreads” to think what the party’s definition of “ruthless” is going forward.
The MSP for Aberdeen Central said that continued austerity measures aren’t just cutting budget, but is cutting “lifelines for those who need them most”.
Stewart (below) said: “The news that Labour plans to be ‘ruthless’ in their decisions on public spending will not come as a surprise to those who have already been on the receiving end of Labour’s austerity agenda.”
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“Under Labour, pensioners across the UK have endured the removal of the Winter Fuel Payment, families are still affected by the two-child cap, and employers are facing massive tax hikes under Labour’s plans for National Insurance – threatening prosperity and economic growth.”
He added: “Given this start to Labour’s time in office, I dread to think what Labour’s definition of ‘ruthless’ is going forward – austerity is not just cutting budgets – it is cutting lifelines for those who need them most.
“The only way to end austerity for good is to with the full powers of independence.”
Jones said that the UK Government will conduct a full review of every line of government spending to assess whether it is a priority and represents “value for money”.
The spending review was already expected to require departments to make savings worth 5% of their budgets.
(Image: Newsquest)
Scottish Greens co-leader Lorna Slater (below) said it was always the most vulnerable people who paid the “greatest price” under the previous Tory government, and that it is no different under Labour’s control.
“It was a ruthless approach to cuts that led us to the position we are in now,” she said.
“The Tories also used ‘growth’ as an excuse to plunge hundreds of thousands of people into poverty, as if an economy can prosper when its citizens have no money and poor health.
“We know exactly where this approach will lead. You cannot keep cutting public services and social security to the bone and expect economic success.
“It was always the most marginalised and vulnerable people who paid the greatest price under the Tories, and it is the same under Labour with their decision to keep the punishing two child cap and to throw thousands of pensioners into fuel poverty.”
Slater said there is “a clear choice” to offer support to public services and that is by introducing a wealth tax on the super rich, taxing polluters, and by cutting tax subsidies to fossil fuel industries.
She added: “Labour could raise billions of pounds for schools and hospitals and build a cleaner and greener economy with thousands of new jobs for the future.”
The Treasury has been approached for comment.