LONDON (AP) — Britain
must stick to its tough austerity measures despite doubts elsewhere in
Europe over the best remedy to fix the continent's stalled economies,
Prime Minister David Cameron insisted Tuesday.
After the election
in France of Socialist Francois Hollande, who has vowed to buck Europe's
austerity trend, and a Greek race in which voters punished mainstream
parties over their support for budget restraint, Cameron said he
wouldn't waver over Britain's program of spending cuts.
Fixing the
debt-ravaged economy "remains our guiding task and in these perilous
times it's more important than ever for Britain that we stick to it,"
Cameron planned to say in a speech later, according to excerpts released
in advance.
Cameron and his deputy Nick Clegg were making a rare
joint appearance in Essex, southern England, to gather support for their
coalition government amid growing unease over Britain's economic path.
Both
Cameron's Conservative Party and Clegg's Liberal Democrats suffered
heavy losses in local elections, as voters punished them for spending
cuts that are seeing welfare payments trimmed and about 700,000 public
sector jobs axed.
Yet analysts warn the most severe elements of a
four-year program of about 81 billion pounds ($130 billion) of cuts to
government spending have yet to bite — meaning public dissent is likely
to grow as living standards decline.
Treasury chief George Osborne
has already warned that Britain will likely need two additional years
of austerity after the scheduled 2015 national election, a package
expected to include a further 23 billion ($37 billion) of budget
trimming.
Opposition Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who won
major gains in Thursday's local election, said voters struggling to
balance family budgets were dismayed at the government's plans,
including a decision to lower taxes for high earners.
"They
promised fairness, they promised that we were all in it together,"
Miliband said. "Things have got worse, not better, because they are
standing up for the wrong people."
Last month, Britain's economy
slumped back into recession for the first time since 2009 amid stalled
growth. While Hollande said he plans to boost growth in France by
investing in infrastructure, Cameron said Britain cannot risk new
borrowing.
"The eurozone remains in extreme trouble and is in
recession, oil prices are making life difficult for families around the
world. At home, we inherited an economy built on the sands of debt,"
Cameron planned to say, according to the text.
Rejecting
Hollande's prescription, Cameron said Britain could not borrow its way
out of its debt crisis. "We can't burden our children with the costs of
paying today's bills tomorrow," the text said.
Vicky Redwood,
chief U.K. economist at Capital Economics, acknowledged that political
events in Europe could strengthen anti-austerity sentiment in Britain,
but said Cameron is unlikely to yield.
"For now the U.K. is still
in a better situation than those troubled economies, and the government
will stick to austerity plans here," Redwood said.
Chris
Williamson, chief economist at financial services company Markit, said
results of French and Greek elections would put "pressure on the British
government to come up with more growth-focused policies."
"The mood in Europe is swinging toward a lack of enthusiasm for austerity measures," Williamson said.
On
Wednesday, Cameron's government will set out its annual legislative
program in a speech by Queen Elizabeth II, as she opens a new session of
Parliament in a traditionally opulent ceremony.
Grass-roots
members of Cameron's party have urged him to focus on boosting economic
growth and to sideline plans to introduce same-sex marriage — an
extension of civil partnership rights for gay couples — and to reform
Britain's unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords.
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Meera Selva contributed to this report
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.