Tories have £30bn black hole in spending plans, says IFS

Thinktank challenges Conservatives to explain where cuts would come from and insists SNP is not anti-austerity

The Conservatives have been challenged to explain how they will achieve 30bn in fresh cuts to Whitehall spending and a 10bn reduction in Britain's welfare bill if they are returned to power in May, as the Institute for Fiscal Studies said the gap between the two main parties' tax and spending plans was the widest at any general election since 1992.

The independent tax thinktank said the electorate had been left "somewhat in the dark" about the details of all the parties' spending plans but the Conservatives have more explaining to do, because they are aiming at much more ambitious cuts in public borrowing.