Danny Alexander lays into Tory budget ‘bung’

Danny Alexander has accused the Conservatives of offering a “bung” to the electorate and approaching the public finances “willy-nilly”.

He laid into his coalition partners ahead of the autumn budget statement due to be delivered by his Tory boss George Osborne next week.

Speaking to The Sunday Post, the Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury was scathing about Conservative plans announced at their party conference to increase the personal tax allowance to £12,500 and raise the level at which workers pay income tax at 40p in the pound.

He said: “What Conservatives have done is said we’ll go to £12,500, we’re going to give a big bung to the top 15% of the population in terms of the 40p rate and we don’t even accept that we have to say how we’ll pay for it, we’ll just do more spending cuts.

“That’s irresponsible because there’s already a lot of fiscal pressure coming down the track. To add to it willy-nilly without saying where those spending cuts are going to come from is very dangerous.”

Alexander has recently been confirmed as Vince Cable’s replacement as the Liberal Democrats’ lead economic spokesman.

He added: “We deserve at least as much credit for the economic successes as the Conservatives do and I’m going to push that point for all its worth between now and the election.”