‘Osborne’s spending plan: seven more years of pain’

UK Chancellor George Osborne announced a Conservative government could continue welfare cuts until 2020 as part of a plan to turn the nation’s finances around and transform its existing budget deficit of £120bn (€144bn) into a budget surplus within seven years, writes The Guardian.

In his keynote address at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Osborne also outlined proposals to freeze fuel tax until after the next election. The daily adds —

Tory strategists believe the commitment to a budget surplus will provide the biggest political dividends in the runup to the 2015 election.

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