Tories will slash funding for schools, colleges and nurseries by more than a quarter in Leicestershire research shows – Cllr Michael Mullaney

Conservatives will cut the education budget by £93million in Leicestershire by 2020 if they were in Government on their own, official research shows.

The Tories would be forced to slash local spending on schools, colleges and nurseries to keep pace with George Osborne's drastic spending cuts plan.

It means £93,100,000 would be wiped of the education budget in Leicestershire - hitting children's life chances.

The research - based official House of Commons library figures - shows schools will bear the brunt of Tory cuts but childcare, college and early years budgets would also be hit hard.

Unlike both Labour and the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats are committed to protecting cradle to college education spending.

Cllr Michael Mullaney said:

"These Tory cuts would be devastating for Hinckley and Bosworth's local schools, nurseries and colleges - hitting our children's life chances hard.

"By committing to a budget surplus by 2020, giving away £7 billion in unfunded tax cut and not raising taxes George Osborne's axe will have to fall on education.

"This would be a disaster for families and children who all depend good schools and a great teachers in this area.

"Unlike both the Conservatives and Labour, the Liberal Democrats will protect education spending on early years, schools and colleges.

"We believe education is crucial in building a stronger economy and a fairer society - one where every child has the opportunity to get on in life."

Notes to editors

National figures were produced by the House of Commons library. Based on the OBR's projections, they compared education spending in 2015/16 with projected spending in 2019/20 if it is not ring-fenced.

The Liberal Democrats have localised the figures by applying the same proportion of cuts at a national level to local authorities

The OBR projections assume the Government will not introduce new taxes or tax rises and will run a £23bn surplus by 2019/20. This is not Liberal Democrat policy or agreed coalition policy.

After finishing the job of clearing the deficit by 2017/18, instead of running a surplus, the Liberal Democrats will ensure that overall public spending grows again in line with the economy. This will ensure we can improve key public services.

We are committed to protecting cradle to college education funding, as well as the international development budget and increasing health spending.

The Liberal Democrats have never shied away from saying that more cuts to other departments will have to take place in the next parliament. Our plans mean we will not have to make anything like the drastic cuts the Conservatives are proposing.

Unlike the Conservatives, we are not promising £7bn of unfunded tax cuts, we are not promising to keep cutting once the deficit is eliminated in 2017/18, and we have said we are prepared to raise taxes on the wealthy.

We have outlined a number of revenue raising measures in order to pay down the deficit, such as a banded High Value Property Levy on homes worth over £2m, scrapping the New Homes Bonus and scaling back the National Citizenship Service.

We will need to go further and will come forward with more detailed policies in our manifesto. However, whoever is in power after the next election will need to hold a Spending Review to identify further savings.