British chancellor George Osborne has started negotiations with the UK government departments to cut spending by £11.5 billion. Mr Osborne said on Tuesday that seven departments had already agreed cuts of up to 10 per cent for 2015-16.
The pledges amount to 20 per cent of the £11.5 billion which Mr Osborne wants to cut spending by from 2015.
Mr Osborne also specified that funding security, health, schools and foreign aid would be protected from the spending cuts which he is aiming to make.
He also ruled out raising taxes to reach his target. Mr Osborne has to announce departmental budgets for the first year of the next Parliament, in 2015-16, in the June 26 spending review.
After the growing anger over the role of security agencies in tracking the Woolwich extremists who murdered a British Soldier last week, Mr Osborne also vowed he would not do anything to endanger Britain’s security.
“We’ve been able to protect it in the past and I’m not going to do anything which is going to endanger the security of this country at home or abroad or the fight against terrorism, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t take a vast institution like the home office and look for savings,” Mr Osborne told BBC.
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Cops probe attacks in prison
age correspondent
London, May 28
British counter-terrorism police launched an investigation on Tuesday after an officer at a maximum security prison in Yorkshire was taken hostage by three male prisoners for over four hours and injured.
A male warder at HMP Full Sutton, which houses many terrorists, in Yorkshire was suffered a broken cheekbone after being held hostage by three male prisoners, two aged 25 and one aged 26 years.
A female prison officer, who tried to help her colleague, received minor injuries. Unconfirmed reports claimed that the three inmates were Muslim and had been inspired by the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby, but there has been no official confirmation.
“Inquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident. Given the nature of the incident and the range of skills and expertise within the North East CTU, the unit is leading the investigation at this time,” the North East Counter-Terrorism Unit said.