Labour Wants Bank Levy Hike To Fund Childcare

Working parents with children aged three and four would receive 25 hours of free childcare a week under new Labour plans.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has pledged pledge to increase the hours covered by state funding from 15 to 25, where a single parent or both parents work.

The move, in his keynote speech to the Labour party conference in Brighton, comes after another proposal to extend childcare at primary schools from 8am to 6pm.

Under Labour's plans, which it suggests would be funded through an increase in the bank levy, the 15-hour early years entitlement would also remain universal.

Ed Balls and Rachel Reeves at a nursery on Monday

Mr Balls also attempted to underline the party's "iron discipline" on spending amid claims there is a £27bn black hole in its plans.

As he and Ed Miliband struggle to restore public trust in Labour on the economy, he told delegates the party has to be "straight" with the country about the action needed.

He has written to the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to ask for an audit of its spending commitments but the watchdog cannot go ahead under its current remit.

Ed Balls playing football on Sunday

Mr Balls now wants parties to unite and push for change so that the body is able to scrutinise the opposition as well as Government, claiming it is about "rebuilding trust".

Tory Sajid Javid, who has released Treasury analysis suggesting Labour promises would require more than £1,000 in extra borrowing per household in 2015, called the move a "stunt".

The Treasury minister said: "Ed Balls knows this is not allowed under the Budget Responsibility Act and the OBR's Charter, so this is just a stunt to try and distract attention from the fact that Labour have been found out for making unfunded commitments that would just mean more borrowing and more debt.

"Nothing has changed - it's the same old Labour. Ed Balls and Ed Miliband still want more spending, more borrowing and more debt - exactly how they got us into a mess in the first place."

OBR chairman Robert Chote also warned there would be "practical issues" if its remit was altered, with questions about resources and access to the right data.

However, some have suggested asking the OBR to assess the credibility of Labour policies would simply be an extension of what already takes place.

The Prime Minister's spokesman said there was an "established process" allowing ministers to ask Treasury officials to cost opposition ideas.

This was used by Mr Javid to examine Labour's policies and led him to make the claim about a £27.5bn black hole of unfunded plans.

The tool has been used by all sides - Labour asked for 38 Tory policies to be costed before the last election, including moves on inheritance tax and stamp duty.

The idea has been put forward by Mr Balls in apparent recognition that Labour still has much to do win back the public's trust on the economy.

Its conference is focused on the cost of living as it seeks to argue that the recovery is not translating into any change for struggling British families.

Mr Balls claimed the Government's bank levy has raised £1.6bn less than the coalition promised and that institutions paid £2.7bn less in overall tax in 2011 compared to 2010.

"At a time when resources are tight and families are under pressure that cannot be right," he told delegates.

"So I can announce today the next Labour government will increase the bank levy rate to raise an extra £800m a year.

"And we will use the money, for families where all parents are in work, to increase free childcare places for three and four- years-olds from 15 hours to 25 hours a week.

"For the first time, parents will be able to work part-time without having to worry about the cost of childcare."

The shadow chancellor admitted that Labour will face some "tough choices" if it regains power in 2015, and will not be able to reverse all of the Government's measures.

He said growth and jobs "cannot magic the whole deficit away at a stroke" and that the coalition's spending totals for 2015/16 would have to be Labour's "starting point".

"Any changes to the current spending plans for that year will be fully funded and set out in advance in our manifesto," he promised.

"There will be no more borrowing for day-to-day spending. And we will set out tough fiscal rules - to balance the current budget and get the national debt on a downward path."

He added: "We won't be able to reverse all the spending cuts and tax rises the Tories have pushed through. And we will have to govern with less money around. The next Labour government will have to make cuts, too."

Ahead of the speech, he dismissed the Conservative claim about a billion-pound funding gap in his tax and spending plans.

"There are no uncosted spending commitments," he insisted on ITV's Daybreak. "There will be no more day-to-day borrowing from Labour in 2015."

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