Ed Balls has confirmed Labour is planning to make cuts to public spending, after Jim Murphy cited analysis which suggested no reductions would be necessary after 2016.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that Labour had scope to increase spending on government departments by £9.2bn by the year 2019/20 and still meet its fiscal targets.

Mr Murphy highlighted the report during last night’s STV Scottish leaders’ debate, saying the thinktank had been “very clear” that Labour did not need to make cuts.

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But Mr Balls, the Shadow Chancellor, clarified that Labour would make cuts.

“The position for us is we’ve said in the NHS and in education, there won’t be more cuts under Labour,” the Shadow Chancellor told BBC Breakfast.

“We’re going to protect those areas and international development. We’re not going to sign up to the cuts that the Tory plan – deeper in the next three years than in the last five.

“We have said, though, in unprotected areas outside of health and education, there will be some sensible spending cuts as part of a balanced plan to get the deficit down. That is where we are.”