By Richard Johnstone | 5 April 2012
David Cameron will today defend the government’s economic policy, including changes to public sector pensions, when he launches the Conservatives’ campaign for next month’s local elections.
In a speech in North Wales later, the prime minister will promise a ‘flat-out, full-throttle fight’ in the elections being held across England, Scotland and Wales on May 3.
Cameron will say that the government is ‘looking at the horizon, not at the headlines’ and is ‘working for the long-term good’ in the national interest. He will argue that cutting public spending will lay the foundations for a sounder, stronger economy, and that it has already led to interest rates for government debt that are ‘among the lowest of any major economy’.
Decisions such as the benefit changes in the recent Welfare Reform Act and go-ahead for high-speed rail show that the government will not ‘play it safe’ in difficult times, he will say.
He is also expected to highlight the changes to public sector pensions being introduced after ‘years [when] people said you can’t reform public sector pensions and make them affordable’.
He will add: ‘Yes, it’s difficult – but today we can look public sector workers in the eye and say: you will have a generous, guaranteed pension and we can look the taxpayer in the eye and say we’ve cut the long-term cost of public sector pensions and there is now a fair, affordable way to pay for them.’
Both Labour and the Liberal Democrats launched their election campaigns earlier this week.
