The Shadow Chancellor George Osborne MP has confirmed that under a conservative government, public spending cuts would be needed to finance their plans for the health service.

This follows comments made by the Tory shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley last week about their health spending plans which are reported to have made senior Conservatives “uncomfortable”. 

Labour Defence Minister, Derek Twigg MP has written to Shadow Secretary of State for Defence Liam Fox asking him what cuts he is proposing to make to defence spending in order to meet the pledge. 

Linda Gilroy MP said “Plymouth Dockyard and naval base workers will remember the deep cuts that were made to defence in the 1980’s and early 1990’s which pretty much decimated jobs.   

“Trusting a Tory with campaigning to save their jobs in Plymouth will be a hard sell . Under the boom and bust years of the Tories all the planning that any public service – including defence – could ever do was to make cuts! What a contrast with the defence budget is increasing year on year under Labour – it is the second largest defence budget in the world.  We are about to embark on the biggest shipbuilding programme for 50 years!  Our dockyard has £1 billion of contracts on submarine work over the next ten years.”

Alison Seabeck MP said: "after a week of playing politics with Naval Base jobs, it's time to focus on what the real threat to Plymouth jobs is. We have had a stable economy with low inflation and the longest period of growth for over 200 years. That is the real background to why Devonport Dockyard and Naval Base are safe in our hands. As for the tories, they're not thinking of Plymouth, the wrok force or the need to build confidence in a fragile skills base at all".

3 March 2008