Brown's debt promise
Posted by Ian at 9 24 PM on Saturday, September 26
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BELEAGUERED Gordon Brown today pledges to cut broke Britain’s debt in half by 2013.
Writing in the News of the World on the eve of the Labour Party conference, the PM promises to get the economy under control WITHOUT massive cuts.
Mr Brown launches his general election campaign with ambitious promises to:
REDUCE the Treasury’s deficit by half in four years. But he says: “We should protect frontline services and continue to invest in a high growth, high employment future.”
ORDER police to hold monthly ‘beat meetings’ with residents to find out what problems they want tackled.
GIVE patients the right to have cancer tests and learn the results within a week in a £1 billion scheme funded from savings in hospital building programmes.
Mr Brown faces the fight of his life this week as he must reunite the Labour party, raise MPs’ morale and give delegates policies to take on the campaign trail. Today he tells the News of the World: “The stakes will be high at the next election for families across Britain — that’s why I am determined to win this fight for our country’s future.”
He adds: “I am as hungry and determined to work for a fairer, more responsible country as I was the first day I entered Parliament.
He adds: “The country is beginning to show we can fight back in the battle against the global recession because we set the right course when times were tough and convinced others to follow.”
Mr Brown will also announce to conference that he is to rush in new laws which will force his and future governments to reduce the level of their debts.
DAVID Miliband has been handed the “graveyard slot” by conference organisers.
The Foreign Secretary, who was accused of preparing a leadership bid in 2008, will address delegates on Thursday, two days after the PM’s keynote speech, and when most people are heading home.
Mr Brown’s supporters are desperate to stop Mr Miliband upstaging the PM.