Tory spending plans - fantasy politics with fanciful sums

6.00.00am GMT Mon 17th Jan 2005

As the Tories reveal their spending plans the Liberal Democrats have attacked the plans as avoiding tough choices. Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, Dr Vince Cable MP said "The Conservatives are playing fantasy politics with fanciful sums and can no longer be seen as financially disciplined and credible. The `waste` cutting agenda cannot be a way of avoiding tough choices. The Liberal Democrats have clearly identified priority areas such as education, policing and pensions and will fund these by switching resources from low priority areas such as the scrapping of the Child Trust Fund, the ID Card scheme, the final stages Eurofighter programme and DTI. The only conclusion that can be drawn from James is that Conservatives themselves do not believe they can win the next election and will therefore never actually have to try and meet all these savings."