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PM and Deputy PM take public's questions on Spending Review

Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg have answered the public's questions about the Spending Review as they visited Nottingham.

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

Yesterday the government unveiled details of the resources that would be allocated across government departments until 2015.

During an hour-long Q&A session at George Spencer School hosted by local radio station Heart FM, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg took questions on topics such as foreign aid, care services and child benefit.

They emphasised the need to get to grips with the UK’s deficit to restore economic confidence and growth, and the importance of protecting parts of public spending.

The PM said:

We’ve had to make decisions…this has to be done otherwise every job would be affected if we didn’t cut the deficit and deal with our debts. We had to make decisions and we’ve given relative priority to the National Health Service, because it’s special, to education where the amount per student in our schools will stay the same and there will be a hefty pupil premium for the poorest children on top of that, and the schools budget will rise each year.

And we’ve also tried to make a priority of the things that would encourage growth in our economy, so making sure we improve the roads and the railways and our port infrastructure.

Earlier, the PM and Deputy PM had visited Welbeck Primary School where they talked to pupils about their lessons and joined the youngsters for lunch.

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Published 21 October 2010