NEW Labour is desperately trying to con the electorate into thinking a Conservative government would cut funding to front line local services.

For example, Salford MP Hazel Blear suggested David Cameron has committed his party to cuts that would threaten key local services like transport, police and schools.

This is untrue. The Labour Party is desperate and the public should not fall for their claims.

The Conservatives are not proposing to cut spending, we are proposing to increase it — just at a slower rate than Labour.

We have made a Budget submission for the coming financial year to use the difference to help savers — the innocent victims of Gordon Brown’s recession — by abolishing tax on savings income for basic rate taxpayers and to help pensioners, by increasing their personal allowance by £2,000.

When everyone else is tightening their belts, the Government should do the same. There is plenty of scope to spend money more wisely without cutting front line services. The Government itself has finally recognised this and plans to find £5 billion of savings from 2010/11 onwards. It spends £400 billion on departmental spending alone.

If we can’t find at least £5 billion worth of efficiency savings, we do not deserve to be in Government.

Cllr Andy Morgan, Hulton Ward, and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Bolton South-East