Miliband: austerity will worsen under Tories

In response to budget, Labour leader claims chancellor has hushed up the fact that NHS faces even deeper cuts under the next parliament

Ed Miliband has warned that the pain of austerity will worsen if the Tories win the general election, and accused the party of seeking to hide an "extreme plan" to impose "colossal" spending cuts in the next parliament.

The Labour leader said that Osborne had failed to mention the NHS in his budget, arguing that his plans for cuts threatened the NHS because the chancellor would struggle to impose deeper spending reductions on the police, defence and local government. Miliband told the Commons: "They won't be able to deliver those cuts so they will end up cutting the National Health Service. That is the secret plan that dare not speak its name today. You can tell they are really worried about it."