Responding to Nick Clegg's speech to Policy Exchange, Labour's Financial Secretary Jane Kennedy said today:

 "Nick Clegg's announcement today that he would cut tax credits for families, on top of scrapping the Child Trust Fund, would hit families hard and increase the number of children living below the poverty line.

 "Today Nick Clegg u-turned on public spending too. After backing Labour's spending plans just a few months ago, he is now planning to cut public services. 

 But the Lib Dems still haven't dropped their many expensive spending pledges, such as a UK wide high speed rail network, promising every audience what they want to hear, regardless of the cost. 

 "Families across Britain won't see the Lib Dems as a serious Party when they plan to cut their tax credits, scrap their Child Trust Fund and cut their public services." 

 Ends

 Editor's notes:

1.  Following today's speech, the Lib Dems now want to "scale back" tax credits and plan "abolishing" the Child Trust Fund 

And that public money can be spent much better if, for example, we radically decentralise the NHS, or scale back Tax Credits.  
Nick Clegg, Speech to Policy Exchange, 20 May 2008 

Choices like abolishing the Child Trust Fund, because it isn't working to increase savings or deliver better opportunities for the poorest children.  
Nick Clegg, Speech in the City of London, 12 May 2008 

2.  Nick Clegg recently said that he backed the same level of total spending as Labour, but has now u-turned from that policy and instead proposes cutting public spending: 

Nick Clegg: Er we...no party now frankly in British politics, all three parties are roughly congregated around the same level of total spending, no party is advocating a significant increase, no party is...  
Andrew Neil: Well we are where we are now?  
Nick Clegg: Well exactly so the question then it seems to me is how do you re-order the priorities in the level of public spending you've got and crucially how do you take away the fragility.  
The Daily Politics, 22 January, 2008 

The Liberal Democrats are different.  We want to challenge - not mindlessly accept - the basic principles of the Government's plans.  We are not ready to accept the Government's proposed overall level of taxation, and will look in depth at whether it can, and should, be cut.  
Nick Clegg, Speech to Policy Exchange, 20 May 2008 

And to make that possible I'm asking my Shadow Cabinet team to look further, and deeper than before, and identify spending cuts equal to 3% of government spending.
Nick Clegg, Speech in the City of London, 12 May 2008 

3. Amongst the many expensive spending pledges that the Lib Dems have made recently are; 

Invest £2bn in post office network:  
"Under my leadership the Liberal Democrats will continue the fight to ensure that the Post Office network is the jewel in the crown of locally accessible public services. We understand the vital social and economic contribution that the Post Office makes to communities across the country, and we will invest £2 billion to ensure that the network is able to thrive."  
NickClegg.com, October, 2007 

UK wide high speed rail network:  
We need a commitment from the Government to invest in a complete high speed rail network, not just a single line from London to Birmingham  
Susan Kramer, Lib Dem News Release, 30 October 2007 

Citizen's pension and immediate re-link of pensions to earnings  
The Liberal Democrats would immediately restore the link between pensions and earnings and introduce a citizen's pension within 10 years that would slash means-testing from over 50% of pensioners to less than 10%, dramatically boosting incentives to save.  
Danny Alexander, Lib Dem News Release, 6 November 2007 

£2.5bn into boosting education funding
"I've promised to put £2.5bn into boosting education funding for the poorest children. And to help tackle the skills gap for adults, I've pledged to change the way we charge for work permits to raise extra money to train domestic workers."  
Nick Clegg, Speech to the CBI, 26 November, 2007