By David Milliken
LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Britain's coalition government cannot rule out extra welfare cuts of more than 4 billion pounds ($6.3 billion) on top of those announced in June, deputy finance minister Danny Alexander said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.
Uncertainty has surrounded the size of the cuts since Conservative finance minister George Osborne said last week that they would be greater than the 11 billion pounds announced in June's budget.
But Osborne's cabinet colleague responsible for welfare, Iain Duncan Smith, said afterwards he did not recognise a 4 billion pound figure for the extra cuts reported in the media.
Alexander, a Liberal Democrat, told the Scotsman newspaper the government needed to scrutinise welfare payments further. Asked if he recognised the 4 billion pound figure, Alexander said: 'I think I wouldn't want to say it was going to be limited to that amount.'
Pressed on whether it may be more, he said: 'We haven't decided on a number yet.' Alexander was speaking before the start of the LibDems' annual conference on Sunday, when many activists are likely to oppose hefty cuts.
The prospect of bigger cuts arose when Osborne told the BBC that detailed welfare cuts to be set out next month 'will amount to several billion pounds additional to what I announced in the budget'.
POLL
The BBC said it would amount to a further 4 billion pounds, but Osborne has not confirmed or denied this figure since.
An extra 4 billion pounds on top of the 11 billion pounds of cuts already announced would together amount to around 6 percent of the welfare budget.
Cutting the budget deficit, a record in peace-time, was a chief Conservative campaign promise before the election in May. However, the Liberal Democrats opposed many budget cuts until they joined the coalition that ousted the ruling Labour Party.
A ComRes opinion poll released late on Saturday showed 52 percent of people who voted for the LibDems in May agreed the party appeared to have 'sold out' their principles by entering coalition with the Conservatives. Some 28 percent disagreed.
LibDem support is just 15 percent, down from 23 percent at the time of the election and 18 percent 10 days ago, according to ComRes's poll of more than 2,000 adults for the Sunday Mirror and Independent on Sunday newspapers.
The Conservatives' lead over Labour halved since ComRes's last poll on Sept. 7, after Conservative support dropped to 37 percent from 38 percent, while Labour support rose to 35 percent from 34 percent.
Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg defended the change in spending policy because an increased risk of spillover from Greece's fiscal crisis in May limited Britain's ability to borrow as much as it had before.
Clegg said he would try to convince sceptical activists of this at the annual conference.
'I totally understand that some of these people are not happy with what the LibDems are doing in coalition with the Conservatives,' he told the Independent newspaper.
'The LibDems never were and aren't a receptacle for left-wing dissatisfaction with the Labour Party. There is no future for that. There never was.'
(Editing by David Stamp) ($1=.6382 Pound) Keywords: BRITAIN WELFARE/ALEXANDER (Reuters Messaging: david.milliken.reuters.com@reuters.net; david.milliken@reuters.com; +44 20 7542 5109) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
LONDON, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Britain's coalition government cannot rule out extra welfare cuts of more than 4 billion pounds ($6.3 billion) on top of those announced in June, deputy finance minister Danny Alexander said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday.
Uncertainty has surrounded the size of the cuts since Conservative finance minister George Osborne said last week that they would be greater than the 11 billion pounds announced in June's budget.
But Osborne's cabinet colleague responsible for welfare, Iain Duncan Smith, said afterwards he did not recognise a 4 billion pound figure for the extra cuts reported in the media.
Alexander, a Liberal Democrat, told the Scotsman newspaper the government needed to scrutinise welfare payments further. Asked if he recognised the 4 billion pound figure, Alexander said: 'I think I wouldn't want to say it was going to be limited to that amount.'
Pressed on whether it may be more, he said: 'We haven't decided on a number yet.' Alexander was speaking before the start of the LibDems' annual conference on Sunday, when many activists are likely to oppose hefty cuts.
The prospect of bigger cuts arose when Osborne told the BBC that detailed welfare cuts to be set out next month 'will amount to several billion pounds additional to what I announced in the budget'.
POLL
The BBC said it would amount to a further 4 billion pounds, but Osborne has not confirmed or denied this figure since.
An extra 4 billion pounds on top of the 11 billion pounds of cuts already announced would together amount to around 6 percent of the welfare budget.
Cutting the budget deficit, a record in peace-time, was a chief Conservative campaign promise before the election in May. However, the Liberal Democrats opposed many budget cuts until they joined the coalition that ousted the ruling Labour Party.
A ComRes opinion poll released late on Saturday showed 52 percent of people who voted for the LibDems in May agreed the party appeared to have 'sold out' their principles by entering coalition with the Conservatives. Some 28 percent disagreed.
LibDem support is just 15 percent, down from 23 percent at the time of the election and 18 percent 10 days ago, according to ComRes's poll of more than 2,000 adults for the Sunday Mirror and Independent on Sunday newspapers.
The Conservatives' lead over Labour halved since ComRes's last poll on Sept. 7, after Conservative support dropped to 37 percent from 38 percent, while Labour support rose to 35 percent from 34 percent.
Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg defended the change in spending policy because an increased risk of spillover from Greece's fiscal crisis in May limited Britain's ability to borrow as much as it had before.
Clegg said he would try to convince sceptical activists of this at the annual conference.
'I totally understand that some of these people are not happy with what the LibDems are doing in coalition with the Conservatives,' he told the Independent newspaper.
'The LibDems never were and aren't a receptacle for left-wing dissatisfaction with the Labour Party. There is no future for that. There never was.'
(Editing by David Stamp) ($1=.6382 Pound) Keywords: BRITAIN WELFARE/ALEXANDER (Reuters Messaging: david.milliken.reuters.com@reuters.net; david.milliken@reuters.com; +44 20 7542 5109) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.