Labour Party aims focus on family budgets ahead of elections - FT
(Reuters) - Britain's opposition leader Ed Miliband is expected to say that family budgets are "at risk" if the Conservatives remain in power, a move intended at trying to shift the UK election campaign back to living standards, the Financial Times reported.
Miliband will promise voters that a Labour government would lift tax credits by at least the inflation rate every year in the next parliament, the newspaper said.
The Labour leader, who is scheduled to speak in central London on Wednesday, will release a new analysis that would suggest that the Tories could cut tax credits by 3.8 billion pounds ($5.83 billion) as part of their attempt to find 12 billion pounds in welfare savings, the FT said.
Speaking alongside Ed Balls, the shadow Chancellor, Miliband is expected to say that another five years of Tory government would mean a plan to double the pace of cuts next year, FT reported.
Earlier on Tuesday, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne said that Britain's economy is at a "critical moment" after official figures showed growth fell sharply in the first three months of 2015, just days before Britons go to the polls.
"While the Tories have spent months patting themselves on the back, these figures show they have not fixed the economy," Balls said.
Opinion polls show Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives are almost neck and neck with the Labour Party.
Tuesday's data showed that growth fell to 0.3 percent in the first quarter from 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014.
Opinion polls have consistently shown that neither of the two main parties is likely to win an overall majority in the 650-seat Parliament.
(Reporting by Shivam Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
