David Cameron and Nick Clegg have defended the spending review’s deep cuts at a public grilling in Nottingham.
Voters have accused the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of targeting society’s most vulnerable at a Q&A session about the government’s spending review.
Nick Clegg defended the austerity package, urging voters to “have a little bit of perspective” and view the cuts in the context of other coalition policies designed to help the poor.
“People do not only think of themselves as recipients of benefits. There is also, ‘How much does it cost to get childcare?’, ‘What kind of education is my child getting at school?’, ‘What am I getting back if I am doing some low-paid , part-time work?’,” he said.
“That is how people live in the real world, and in the real world it is the richest that are paying the most – about that there is not doubt at all.”
Fairness
He told the group “fairness” was at the root of the government’s spending review, which is aiming to clear the country’s budget deficit.
“I honestly would not have advocated this if I didn’t feel that, notwithstanding all the difficulties, we tried to do this as fairly as possible.
“Of course I understand people are very, very fearful, and fear is a very powerful emotion and it kind of sweeps everything else aside.
“But I would ask people to have a little bit of perspective: if you look at some of the announcements we made yesterday, and add that to some of the announcements we made in the Budget, I think the picture is a little bit more balanced than people are saying.”
David Cameron defended the Government’s decision to increase foreign aid while making deep spending cuts at home.
‘Moral duty’
Asked by a voter why the government was boosting its international aid when “charity should begin at home”, he said it was in Britain’s “moral duty” to help those in poverty.
“But I think it is the right decision because yes, we have great difficulties in our country, we have got this mountain of debt we have got to deal with, we have got to live within our means, we have got to make some cuts in some of the government departments,” he said.
“Well-directed aid, that can help the poorest people in the poorest countries, is actually in our national interest.” David Cameron
“But at the same time we are still living in a world where there are millions of people who live on less than a dollar a day, who are desperately poor, and I think we do have a moral responsibility, as one of the richest countries in the world, not to give up on them just because we are having a difficult time at home.
“So all the three parties have, bravely, made this decision that we are going to stick to the big international promise we made to the poorest in the world. “It is not a huge amount, 0.7%.”
He added: “Even if I can’t convince you that there is a moral responsibility, there is also some self-interest here too.
“Think about the countries where the terrorism comes from; think about the countries where the waves of migration come from; think about problems in our world caused by grinding poverty.
“Well-directed aid, that can help the poorest people in the poorest countries, is actually in our national interest.”