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Osborne: Brown misled MPs on cuts Osborne: Brown misled MPs on cuts
(31 minutes later)
Leaked Treasury documents show Gordon Brown "misled" Parliament on the scale of planned spending cuts, shadow chancellor George Osborne has said.Leaked Treasury documents show Gordon Brown "misled" Parliament on the scale of planned spending cuts, shadow chancellor George Osborne has said.
The papers suggest the government is preparing "near 10%" cuts in departmental budgets over the four years from 2010, he told the BBC.The papers suggest the government is preparing "near 10%" cuts in departmental budgets over the four years from 2010, he told the BBC.
He said Mr Brown had told MPs he was not planning 10% cuts.He said Mr Brown had told MPs he was not planning 10% cuts.
But he was "sitting all the time on internal Treasury documents telling him the real truth". The Treasury has refused to comment on the 22 page document, which has been leaked to the Conservative Party.
Mr Osborne said the documents, which he said had been leaked to the Conservative Party "in the proverbial brown envelope", showed Mr Brown had misled Parliament. Mr Osborne said the documents, which he said had been handed to the party "in the proverbial brown envelope", showed Mr Brown had misled Parliament.
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"It's about trust and honesty... what they show - these are the internal government projections for spending - and they show that the government has been planning since the Budget a near 10% cut in departmental budgets."It's about trust and honesty... what they show - these are the internal government projections for spending - and they show that the government has been planning since the Budget a near 10% cut in departmental budgets.
"And of course since the Budget we have had Gordon Brown and others on programmes like this saying there was a choice between Labour investment and Tory cuts, and very specifically attacking us for being the people planning 10% cuts, and saying David Cameron was Mr 10% and so on."And of course since the Budget we have had Gordon Brown and others on programmes like this saying there was a choice between Labour investment and Tory cuts, and very specifically attacking us for being the people planning 10% cuts, and saying David Cameron was Mr 10% and so on.
"And now we know that Gordon Brown misled the public, misled Parliament, was not telling the truth, was sitting all the time on internal Treasury documents telling him the real truth.""And now we know that Gordon Brown misled the public, misled Parliament, was not telling the truth, was sitting all the time on internal Treasury documents telling him the real truth."
'Tory cuts'
On Tuesday, Mr Brown admitted for the first time that Labour would have to make cuts in public spending if it is returned to power at the next election but he said the party would never "support cuts in the vital front-line services on which people depend".
In June, the prime minister seized on comments by shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, who said that in order to protect spending on health and schools a future Conservative government would cut spending in other areas by a total of 10% between 2011 and 2015.
Mr Lansley said the Conservatives had been working from the government's own figures released at the time of the Budget, which showed departmental spending - rather than the overall headline figure for public spending - would be cut in real terms by 7%.
But at prime ministers' questions, Mr Brown taunted Conservative leader David Cameron about cuts, saying he had "better admit" that he wants to cut expenditure by "10%".
"The public will remember one thing about the last week - 10% cuts in public expenditure under the Tories, investment under Labour," Mr Brown told on MPs on 17 June.