Britain's business secretary, Vince Cable, has delivered a stinging attack on "lying" Tories who suggest that the government can balance its books without raising taxes.
Dismissing his coalition partners as “Ukip without the beer”, Mr Cable said they were “ideologically” committed to destroying public services and the welfare state.
The intervention, in a speech to the Liberal Democrat conference in Glasgow, came as the party tried to differentiate itself ahead of next year’s general election.
Mr Cable told activists that Labour was offering “French socialism without the sex”. But he reserved his most hostile passages for the Conservatives, whom he lambasted as “arrogant” and a home for “dodgy billionaires”.
Referring to Mr Osborne’s proposal last month for a further two-year freeze on working age benefits, Mr Cable said: “Key public services have already been cut to the bone . . . The Tories are ideologically obsessed by cuts because they see it as a way of destroying public service and the welfare state, which they detest. The Tories’ proposal to take another £25 billion (€31.8 billion) or more out of welfare and unprotected government departments will do great harm to valuable services. ”
Taking a different tone from Mr Osborne on the public finances, Mr Cable said that borrowing should be allowed to rise for capital investment. “When interest rates are so low, borrowing for investment is a no-brainer and is nothing to do with deficit reduction,” he said.
He drew a sharp dividing line over immigration, insisting: "Our responsibility as Liberal Democrats is to tell the uncomfortable truth: that the vast majority of migrants coming to the UK from inside or outside the EU have brought tangible benefits to the economy."
Clegg aggression
Signalling a more aggressive approach in a bid to revive rock-bottom poll ratings, party leader Nick Clegg earlier used a round of broadcast interviews to accuse chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne of planning to "balance the books on the backs of the poor".
But the deputy prime minister refused to spell out exactly what the Liberal Democrat “red lines” would be if they ended up negotiating to enter another coalition with the Conservatives next May.
– (PA)