Tory public spending cuts would cost almost 70,000 front-line jobs

Plans by the Conservatives to reduce public spending by 10% from 2011 would result in nearly 70,000 front-line job cuts, Gordon Brown has said.

Last week, shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said the Conservatives would look to make cuts of up to 10% for the three years from 2011 in many Whitehall departments, if they were to win the next general election.

Lansley said the cuts would be necessary to cover the £15bn shortfall in the NHS’s budget between 2011 and 2016 – as outlined in a report by the NHS Confederation.

But prime minister Gordon Brown has said making 10% cuts to Whitehall budgets would mean 44,000 teaching jobs, 15,000 police positions and 10,000 Army jobs could be lost.

He added education and training would be further affected as the cuts would also lead to 32,000 fewer university places.

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Writing in the Sunday Mirror, Brown said: “David Cameron – Mr 10 Per Cent – would actually make the recession worse, by slowing public spending at exactly the time we need it most.”

Sian Thomas, director of NHS Employers, told Personnel Todaythe shortfall could be made up without cutting jobs and training in the NHS.