Armed Forces and police to face further spending cuts,

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Danny Alexander warns
The Armed Forces and the police will face further spending cuts because the Coalition will not sanction any more reductions to welfare payments, senior Treasury minister Danny Alexander has warned.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said that the Ministry of Defence and the Home Office would share the pain of the £11.5"‰billion of cuts due in 2015-16.
Mr Alexander also warned ministers in the affected departments that public protests against cuts would not influence the outcome of forthcoming Cabinet talks over the reductions.
Earlier this month, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, said that further cuts in military spending could not be made without jeopardising the country's security plans and without requiring more military redundancies.
He called for new reductions in the welfare budget, a position that is also understood to be shared by Theresa May, the Home Secretary, and Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary.
The Tory ministers — who have been referred to as the "national union of ministers" — have argued in Cabinet that additional cuts should be made to the welfare budget to reflect recent falls in unemployment. However, in the interview, Mr Alexander hit back, describing himself as a member of the "union of deficit-reducing ministers". Mr Alexander, a Liberal Democrat, is about to lead talks for the next spending round, to agree expenditure for government departments for 2015-16

Asked whether the Home Office and Ministry of Defence would be protected from further cuts, he said only that the NHS, schools and international development would be ring-fenced, adding: "We will work through the details, but every department, including the ones you mention, will have to make savings."
One independent analysis this week suggested that the MoD could lose more than £1.6"‰billion from its £32"‰billion budget for 2015-16, a reduction that would almost certainly force a fresh round of defence job cuts.
Mr Alexander also warned Tory ministers that he would not reopen negotiations over the welfare budget in the Spending Review, due to be unveiled in June. "As a member of the union of deficit-reducing ministers, I have been very clear and this is the collective view of the Government, that we took decisions on welfare in the autumn statement, and that the spending round is coming from departmental expenditure," he said.
"Every department around the table with the exception of those areas that are protected will have to make a contribution to that process. And, I'll spend most of my time working out with colleagues the best way to do that."
He said he was not angered by ministers making public demands over the spending negotiations but added: "It has no effect on the decisions I will make, or the view that I will take on the right balance. The idea that having a great public campaign will influence the outcome, that's just wrong."
The Budget this week confirmed that austerity would continue until at least 2018, and Mr Alexander warned that universal benefits paid to pensioners should be considered as part of any future round of welfare cuts.

source :: Armed Forces and police to face further spending cuts, Danny Alexander warns - Telegraph
 

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