Parties 'failing to come clean on need for major spending cuts'

Britain is facing public spending cuts on a scale unseen for a generation whoever wins the general election, an influential think-tank warned today as it accused the main parties of failing to come clean with voters.

In a scathing report, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the public were being denied an “informed choice” because none of the parties had been prepared to set out their plans for tackling the record £163bn (€187bn) deficit.