BRITISH LABOUR leader Ed Miliband has defended his party’s decision to rule out reversing any of the government’s spending cuts, despite fury from some among his own ranks, and trade union leaders.
The significant shift in policy was announced by Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls on Saturday, though it is still a mystery why such a major change was not announced by Mr Miliband when he did a new year “relaunch” of his leadership earlier in the week.
Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr Show, Mr Miliband said: "If Labour was in power now we wouldn't be making those changes. We wouldn't be cutting as far and as fast as the government.
“But when it comes to the next Labour government, if I was saying to you, ‘I can absolutely promise to restore this cut or that cut’, you would say, ‘well, where is the money going to come for that?”
Mr Miliband and Mr Balls stuck by their oft-repeated statement that chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne had caused the need for £160 billion worth of extra borrowing as he had dragged life out of the economy by cutting spending too much.
Mr Miliband's leadership is in serious trouble, given that his approval ratings have sunk to their lowest yet, according to a poll published by the Sunday Timesyesterday.
Labour left-wing MPs, including former leadership challenger John McDonnell, have reacted furiously to Mr Balls’s declarations that the public pay freeze imposed by Mr Osborne must continue.
Mr Miliband yesterday defended the shadow chancellor. “It’s a hard choice, but when you are faced with the choice between protecting jobs or saying the money should go into pay rises I think it’s right to protect jobs. In the end there’s no easy choices in government,” he said.
Labour MP Austin Mitchell, said: “This is a desperate attempt to get respectability but it’s barmy. Miliband is acting out of weakness.”
The shift is expected to dominate conversations between many Labour MPs when they return to the House of Commons today.
In his speech to the Fabian Society, Mr Balls said: “I can’t just promise to people that I can just wave a magic wand and be able to spend more and tax less. I cannot make commitments now for three years’ time. I won’t do that. It wouldn’t be credible.”
Some Labour MPs fear Mr Miliband is giving a confused message to voters because on the one hand he is saying spending cuts cannot be reversed, but, on the other, he is trying to argue they should never have been made.
