George Osborne is having to resort to some bully-boy tactics in a bid to achieve his stated cuts ahead of his annual spending review on 26 June to cover 2015-2016
Having yesterday announced cuts of GBP2.5 bln agreed with seven government departments he is now turning to the use of a “star chamber” to persuade those ministers more reluctant to part with another GBP 11.5 bln. The star chamber is a cabinet committee, whose members will meet to discuss the spending round in broad terms and, if necessary, interrogate individual ministers who refuse to reach an agreement with the treasury.
This annual review only covers spending for one year, instead of the usual three-year period, because the two coalition parties intend to go into the general election with different spending plans for the next parliament.But the 2015 general election will not take place until after the 2015-16 financial year has already started, so the government has decided that it needs to produce detailed spending plans to cover that year.
