a jobsí tax that will kill the recovery instead of getting a grip on government waste. “We need decisive action to restore business confidence and strengthen economic growth, that’s why the Conservatives have set out a plan to start reducing the deficit in 2010 by cutting the government waste.”
Trade unions and industry experts have warned that there will be widespread discontent as a result of the massive Tory cuts. They have warned that tens of thousands of jobs will go under the Tories. Osborne counters that by saying that any government will have to deal with the deficit. “If we don’t, we face higher mortgage rates and risk tipping Britain back into recession. We have set out some specific examples of what we will do. But as we tackle the deficit we have made it clear that we will protect the most vulnerable and leave no one behind. So, we will keep key pensioner benefits and keep tax credits for those on low and modest incomes. Only families on incomes over £50,000 will not receive tax credits.” He agrees that the British economy is on course to recovery but insists that “five more years of Gordon Brown will put the recovery at risk. David Cameron and the Conservatives will act now on debt to help keep mortgage rates low and get the economy moving.”
Osborne identifies jobs’ tax as the biggest problem for businesses and says it will kill the recovery just when we need businesses to pull us through. He disagrees with perception in some quarters that the Tories are the party of rich. He says that itís not about class divide but about the fact that we are in together and together we can fix the broken society. He says his party will help the downtrodden by redistributing power away from the central state to local communities, allowing charities, social enterprises and companies to provide public services, and devolving power down to neighbourhoods.
“The UK has the highest proportion of children growing up in workless households of any country in the Europe. In our efforts to help business and job creation, we will create a single Work Programme for everyone who is unemployed, including the 2.6m people claiming Incapacity Benefit who are not helped by the existing programmes. Over two years we will fund 200,000 apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, 100,000 work pairings and 100,000 further education college places. Tackling entrenched workless-ness is a key part of our aspiration to eliminate child poverty.”