Nick Clegg has warned that George Osborne is in danger of making a "monumental mistake" after the chancellor said that about half of a further £25bn in spending cuts after the next general election would come from the welfare budget.
In a sign of how coalition relations will remain fractious until the election in May 2015, the deputy prime minister said the chancellor's plans to target cuts on the working age poor were lopsided and unbalanced.
Speaking at his monthly press conference in Whitehall, Clegg said: "You've got a Conservative party now who are driven, it seems to me, by two very clear ideological impulses. One is to remorselessly pare back the state – for ideological reasons just cut back the state.{jcomments on}
"Secondly – and I think they are making a monumental mistake in doing so – they say the only people in society, the only section in society, which will bear the burden of further fiscal consolidation are the working-age poor."
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