The Conservative Party plans to extend spending cuts beyond the £47 billion it announced last year if it wins the next election, according to leaked comments from shadow chancellor Andrew Griffith.
Griffith told Conservative members last year, when serving as shadow business secretary, that he and fellow shadow cabinet ministers had discussed making further cuts across "every part of government". The Guardian obtained these comments in an exclusive report.
The party has not publicly detailed the scope or scale of cuts beyond the previously announced £47 billion figure. Griffith's remarks suggest the leadership has privately considered deeper reductions to public spending than voters have been told about.
The leaked comments come as the Conservatives prepare for a general election expected sometime in the coming months. The party has faced criticism from multiple angles: from the left, over the scale of any cuts; from the right, over whether the cuts go far enough to address what it characterises as wasteful government spending.
No specific departments or services are named in Griffith's quoted remarks as targets for additional cuts. The shadow chancellor did not provide figures for how much more might be cut beyond the £47 billion pledge.