Spending promises from Brown

Gordon Brown is trying to show us the chasm between Labour and the Conservatives by showing a bit of ankle on the Pre-Budget Report.

Labour would not cut support for schools, hospitals and police, he says. That’s a very tricky promise to pin down. He’s not saying he’ll protect the entire schools department or any of the other departments.

There are also commitments to protect Sure Start, the minimum wage planned increases, and the international aid 0.7 per cent of overall spend target.

Working out what that means for the other budgets is pretty well impossible without more detail but it means defence, transport, any number of other Cinderellas, get less of the cake.

Alistair Darling has asked for the PBR papers to be ready for end October but it’s not decided yet whether the actual PBR will be then or the end of November.