Politicians of all stripes must "come clean" on deficit reduction

• No party has credible plan for finding necessary savings

• Current plans would see spending return to 2008 levels, not 1930 levels

• Reducing spending to around a third of national income would make us comparable to Australia and Switzerland

 Responding to Labour leader Ed Miliband's speech on his party's plans to cut the deficit, Jonathan Isaby, Chief Executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said:

"It is ludicrous to suggest that we can eliminate the deficit whilst ring-fencing favoured departments, and politicians of all stripes must come clean about the need to find savings across government.

There were lots of welcome principles in Mr Miliband's speech, but all too little detail. By how much would Mr Miliband cut the deficit every year? And at what level of spending would the NHS be "protected"?

With less than five months until the election, taxpayers deserve more honesty from all those who want their vote about the fundamental economic challenge of the next Parliament."TaxPayers' Alliance Research Fellow Rory Meakin has looked at the numbers behind today's speech - noting that Switzerland (spending 33.8% of GDP) and Australia (35.3%) are successful economies despite their lower relative public spending.