'You take care of the workers and we'll take care of the bosses'

Danny Alexander interview: I heard a senior Tory tell a Lib Dem colleague 'You take care of the workers and we'll take care of the bosses'



A senior Conservative minister told a Liberal Democrat cabinet colleague: “You take care of the workers and we’ll take care of the bosses” in a private Whitehall meeting to discuss the Coalition Government’s priorities.

The controversial remark was revealed by Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, in an interview with The Independent that exposes some of the behind the scenes tensions in the Coalition Government.

Mr Alexander said it showed David Cameron and George Osborne were guilty of “breath-taking hypocrisy” for trying to claim responsibility for raising the threshold at which people pay tax – while privately arguing for tax cuts for the better off.

“In March 2012 when the economy was still in the very early stages of recovery we wanted to do a very big increase in the personal allowance to put a lot of money back into folk’s pockets,” he said. “The Tories priority at the time was the top rate of tax.

“I remember one meeting with a group of senior Conservatives and one of them said ‘listen you take care of the workers and we’ll take care of the bosses’.

“That was said across the table in one of the meetings where we were discussing the forward policy of the Government. That really spelt out where their priorities lay.”

Mr Alexander did not reveal the identity of the Conservative who made the comments but The Independent understands that they were a senior Cabinet Minister involved in negotiating Government policy with the Lib Dems.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/danny-alexander-interview-i-heard-a-senior-tory-tell-a-lib-dem-colleague-you-take-care-of-the-workers-and-well-take-care-of-the-bosses-10157452.html

Bit of an open secret that the country had guessed a long time ago.