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  Courtesy Independent.......
  
  'Union of Ministers' rebel against yet more budget cuts
  
  MoD has been told to find savings of five per cent
  
  Government departments have been told by the Treasury to come up with plans
  
  to slash their budgets by a further 10 per cent in a single year as part of the
  
  Coalition's latest austerity drive.
  
  Danny Alexander, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, wrote to all of his cabinet
  
  colleagues setting out the cuts they could be expected to make as part of the
  
  Government's spending review for 2015-16. While the NHS, schools and international
  
  development spending will not be cut, every other department, apart from the Ministry
  
  of Defence, has been told to save the equivalent of 10 per cent of current spending.
  
  The MoD has been told to find savings of five per cent but this will be partially offset
  
  by an agreed one per cent rise in the defence equipment budget for the period.
  
  Treasury sources stressed that the letters were the "start of the negotiating process"
  
  and that the final level of cuts was ultimately likely to be lower.
  
  However, the scale of the desired reductions in departments such as the Home Office,
  
  Local Government and Business will still infuriate ministers.
  
  Home Secretary Theresa May, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and Justice
  
  Secretary Chris Grayling are among a group in the Cabinet dubbed "the National
  
  Union of Ministers" who oppose further cuts in their departments.
  
  They privately warn there is simply "not the fat left to cut" after the 2010 spending
  
  review which saw unprotected departments face average cuts of 20 per cent over
  
  four years.
  
  The reductions are likely to impact more severely on court services and council spending,
  
  as well as the armed forces.
  
  And there is still 70 % of the old cuts still to hit...............

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