Tories 'to slash govt ad spending'

The Conservatives will slash government spending on advertising straight away if they win the coming general election, it was revealed yesterday.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne (pictured), who was giving a lecture at the London School of Economics, said that he could not wait until the usual 50 days when the new chancellor is expected to give his new budget, as the economy was in too fragile a state.

He said: 'Programmes that represent poor value for money - excessive spending on things like advertising and consultants, spending on tax credits for people earning more than £50,000, and spending on child trust funds for better-off families - will all have to be cut during the financial year.'

The news follows a controversial statement made earlier this week by shadow Treasury minister and Hammersmith & Fulham MP Greg Hands, who said that design work could and should easily be done in-house rather than outsourced.

He said: 'Modern graphic design packages surely allow anyone with an average brain to design something as good as, or better than, what we see in front of us here.'

Mr Osborne announced his plans ahead of a governmental need to severely cut Britain's £178 billion deficit.