THE LIBERAL Democrats will campaign for major spending cuts in next year’s UK general election, the party membership agreed yesterday, ruling out any “unaffordable pledges”.
The promises made by the party – the UK’s third largest – must be “economically credible, as well as bold”, said MP Danny Alexander, who will write the manifesto after months of often-difficult internal debate.
Despite unhappiness within the ranks, Mr Alexander said long-held objections to third-level tuition fees needed to be reassessed, in light of the UK’s worsening debt figures and falling tax receipts.
“The only certainty is that the next government will have to make very hard choices about spending – cuts will be necessary to deliver any priorities,” the motion, passed overwhelmingly, reads.
“Any new spending should be paid for by a specific cut made elsewhere, to ensure it is deliverable even in these tough economic times – this means that we will not increase public spending overall.”
Tax cuts for low- and middle-income earners will not be paid for “by cuts in services, but by making taxes fairer and greener, so that the richest pay their fair share and polluters pay for the damage they cause”.
Final decisions on the manifesto’s contents will be taken by the party’s policy committee, where strong opposition still exists to party leader Nick Clegg’s desire not to put a date on the abolition of tuition fees.
Saying he believed the abolition pledge would remain, MP Evan Harris said the committee – not the party leader – would have the last word.
Decisions about policies ultimately rested with the party, he said.
Meanwhile, a plan put forward by the party’s treasury spokesman, Vince Cable, to tax £1 million (€1.1 million) homes has encountered significant resistance, partly because many of the party’s MPs had not been told about it in advance.
Julia Goldsworthy, the Liberal Democrats spokeswoman for communities and local government, only heard of the proposal – already dubbed the “mansion tax” – when Mr Cable went on radio to announce it.
Mr Cable was sharply criticised yesterday morning at a meeting of the parliamentary party in a Bournemouth hotel, where some MPs described the tax as “complete codswallop”.
But the MPs are particularly angry about the lack of consultation, since Mr Cable, who has become the party’s best-known MP for his commentary on the global financial crisis, has previously tried and failed to get it adopted as party policy.
Leading frontbenchers, including Chris Huhne and Norman Lamb, were embarrassed in national television interviews when they struggled to explain the details of the policy.
The difficulties over the “mansion tax” are the latest in a series of policy gaffes this week by the party, which is hoping to make significant advances on its 65 House of Commons seats. Former party leader Menzies Campbell said the party had “to grow up”.
Mr Huhne became the latest Liberal Democrat MP to change a previously issued conference speech, when he dropped a charge that Conservative MP William Hague was “a skinhead who has gone round the beer cellars of Europe and come up with the dregs”.
Mr Alexander said the line had been in an early draft of Mr Huhne’s speech, which criticised the ability of the Conservatives to deal with crime if they are elected next year.
“I think he decided that the substance of that was important, not getting into a discussion about William Hague’s hairstyle or his drinking habits,” said Mr Alexander, in response to journalists’ questions.
Mr Clegg has encountered similar difficulties, having dropped a declaration in a weekend speech that “savage” public spending cuts would be necessary after the general election.