Labour may outflank the Tories on health and overseas aid spending – but will struggle to do so on reform

If you want some insights into where Labour are going next, then do read this story in today’s Guardian.  The main points are that Brown and Darling have agreed not to spare the health and international development budgets from cuts; that Labour’s public spending cuts will be set out over the next couple of months, beginning with a couple of speeches this week; and that Labour wants to frame its cuts as a return to the public service reform agenda.  As one “cabinet source” tells the paper:

“The new economic context is a challenge for us, but New Labour in its original form never saw spending more money as the only solution. We need to revisit the original New Labour approach of public service reform. We are going to put the pedal on reform, but we are also going to project our values in what we propose. It is not going to be the Tory position of a bonfire of spending.