Last week we looked into the Conservatives’ claim that they could make £1.5bn-worth of savings in an effort to reduce Britain’s colossal deficit.
After consulting with the Institute of Fiscal Studies we concluded the Tories would be lucky to save £625m this year.
FactCheck caught up with Philip Hammond, the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury who originally made the claim.
“I gave a figure, off the top of my head, of a billion to a billion-and-a-half,” he says. “I stand by that figure.”
“We have been very clear about this. In addition to cuts in child trust funds and child tax credits we will cut the government advertising budget.”
“So for 2010, it is absolutely right to add savings from the reduction in the advertising budget to the savings in trust funds and tax credits”.
“We can save £1bn-£1.5bn from those three measures.”
Watch the video below: