GEORGE Osborne is a "very dangerous man" whose plan for the public finances would result in economic disaster, Nick Clegg has warned in one of his strongest attacks yet on the Tory strategy.
In a magazine interview, the Deputy Prime Minister claimed the Chancellor's plan to eliminate the deficit by spending cuts alone would "destroy public services" and represented a dramatic lurch to the Right, that involved a "harder approach than anything the arch-Thatcherites would do".
His attempt to create clear yellow water with his Conservative Coalition partners as the election campaign gathers pace comes as the Liberal Democrats today focus on their key policy of raising the tax-free personal allowance with a pledge to go "further and faster".
The personal allowance - the amount a person can earn before paying income tax - is set to rise to £10,800 in 2016/17 and £11,000 in 2017/18 under current Government plans. The Lib Dems and the Tories want to raise this further to at least £12,500 during the next Parliament.
Mr Clegg together with his Scottish counterpart, Willie Rennie, will hit the campaign trail today to promote their bid to raise more low paid workers out of tax altogether.
Their colleague David Laws, the Education Minister, criticised the "unbelievable cheek" of the Conservatives as he noted there had "not been a single Budget or Autumn Statement" in the last Parliament when either Prime Minister David Cameron or Chancellor George Osborne made personal tax allowance rises a "Conservative ask".
"If the Liberal Democrats are in coalition talks after the next election, then this will be one of the items that we want to put on the list for discussion before even the first cup of coffee has been served in the coalition talks," said Mr Laws, adding: "This is a massive priority for us."
Meantime in his interview with GQ magazine, Mr Clegg said after five years in a coalition Mr Cameron was "not too much about grand vision", saying he could "live with that" but was highly critical of the the Chancellor.
He warned Mr Osborne's plans for balancing the books, which involve an extra £12 billion of welfare cuts and £13bn slashed from Whitehall budgets without any tax rises, were "socially and morally unacceptable".
In the interview with Tony Blair's former spin doctor Alastair Campbell, the Deputy Prime Minister said: "George Osborne is a very dangerous man with a very dangerous plan and I will do everything in my power to stop it."
He said the Chancellor's proposals would do "so much damage" and stressed: "I don't know of a developed economy that wants to do something as rigidly ideological as he wants to do; to balance the books through public spending reductions alone, not tax, with one section, the working poor, taking the biggest hit.
"I find it socially and morally unacceptable but also economically a disaster."
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