Richard Leese has more front than Blackpool. His latest claim, splashed on the front of the Evening News, is that that there "may need to be" £80m of cuts between 2013 and 2015.

What he doesn't say is that he is proposing £50m of extra spending on other projects.

This is nothing new. Cllr Leese has some previous.

Last year he spent an extra £30 Million for things like paying more towards a waste levy because our recycling level is so bad, and paying for transport improvements agreed long before this Government came to power, then blamed everything on the Coalition

Now no-one is suggesting that difficult cuts didn't have to be made. But for the second year running Labour are exaggerating the cuts to make a political point.

First, swimming baths were closed because of "cuts". Then they were saved.

Then Surestarts were being "shut", then they were "saved".

Manchester will quite rightly receive the second highest Government grant of any Council in the country in the forthcoming year. It still has Reserves of over £170 Million and has recently committed itself to building three new swimming pools, a new cultural complex and to continuing with the £170 Million revamp of the Town Hall and Central Library.

Sir Richard is conning people, and he knows it.

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