The founder of Britain’s’ Taxpayers’ Alliance believes the last election there shows that a political party can campaign to lower spending and win.
And he says that it is likely Britain’s famously bloated public sector could occupy a smaller percentage of gdp than America’s does by the end of this Conservative term.
Mathew Elliot is in New Zealand at the invitation of the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.
Its director, Jordan Williams, says he modelled the New Zealand body on the British one.
Mr Elliot said the Conservative win at this year’s election was the first time since Lord Palmerston was British Prime Minister (1186 – 1892) that there had been a swing to the Government after its first term.
“That shows you can run a good free market election campaign and the electorate will respect you and reward you for that,” he told “POLITIK”.
But though he is claiming a big mandate for smaller Government he (surprisingly) is sceptical about the latest small Government move here, Social Impact Bonds.
“They seem to be going slightly out of fashion in the United Kingdom,” he said.
“They came in about 10 years ago but there have been various scandals about companies taking up the contracts —- falsified figures and that sort of thing.”
Mr Elliot said the debate at the last election about spending cuts did not include education or health, both of which were ring fenced by Prime Minister David Cameron, but rather in social services.
“That’s where I think the big cuts will come,” he said.
The TPA has been advocating a cap on Government spending on welfare which is currently set at £UK26, 000 per family but at the same time the Government has committed itself to cutting welfare spending by £UK12 billion which he said suggested the family cap could drop as low as £UK22, 000.
Mr Elliot has been described by the BBC as “one of the most effective lobbyists at Westminster”, [10] and in 2010 was named by “Total Politics” magazine as one of the top 25 political influencers in the UK.
He says that his organisation’s main tool is to use the Freedom of Information Act to deliver transparency on Government spending decisions — a tactic employed here by Mr Jordan’s organisation here too.
Mr Elliot is also the Chief Executive of Business for Britain which aims to speak for business as the debate about British membership of the European Union heats up.
It is not the only business lobby group in the debate and plainly represents Euro-sceptics.
He believes that the EU is holding the British economy back because it is holding up free trade agreements with the United States and China.
He believes that if Britain does end up leaving the EU, Europe would soon sign a free trade agreement with the UK because the UK is Europe’s largest trading partner.
“People in the UK still think they are in the 70s and that we are the sick man of Europe but we are not.
“We are the fifth biggest economy in the world.
If we did leave I think we could prosper and thrive.”
