In their Budget last week the Tories confirmed their intention for extreme spending cuts in the next Parliament -; a plan that would put our NHS at risk and make a further rise in VAT inevitable.

The result is Tory spending plans which go beyond simply balancing the books and are a grave threat to our living standards and public services.

• In the next three years the spending cuts are faster per year than any year of the last Parliament.
•  In the next three years there will be deeper spending cuts than in the last five years.
•  In the next three years there will be nearly twice the spending cuts that happened in the last three years.

The Tories want people to believe that they have moved off their 1930s spending plans, but their plans in fact mean that in 2018 spending on day–?to–?day public services as a share of GDP will be at its lowest level since 1938. And the Tories have also made £10 billion of unfunded tax promises -; which they have still not told us how they will pay for. Their extreme spending plans and unfunded promises mean they’ll end up raising VAT to make their sums add up.

The Tories can’t be trusted when it comes to VAT. Time and time again they have made pre-election promises not to increase VAT or extend its scope, only to break them as soon as they are back in power.

The message is clear: the Tories simply cannot be trusted. The Tories are the VAT party. VAT is the Tories’ favourite tax