Things never seem to go smoothly for Gordon. On a day when the Telegraph carries details of his Whitehall savings programme, the FT has news that one of his closest allies, Ed Balls, is calling for relatively hefty spending increases elsewhere. Apparently, Balls has asked the Treasury to grant his department – the Department for Children, Schools and Families – real-terms spending increases of 1.4 percent until 2014. That’s an extra £2.6 billion in total – and goes beyond previous Labour commitments to “protect” schools spending.
It’s a brassy move by Balls and one which is sure to aggravate his colleagues. After all, remember when Labour called Cameron “Mr 10 percent” because the Tory decision to protect health spending implied 20 percent cuts to other budgets? Well, according to the FT, Balls’s impromptu request would mean 12 percent cuts for other departments – rising to 20 percent if Labour also protects health spending.
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