TORIES have denied that austerity has been inflicted on Britain and insisted that wider and deeper spending cuts should be made.

At a fringe meeting today in Manchester, where the Conservative Party conference is under way, speakers, including MPs, said that the government had not gone far enough in slashing public spending.

City AM editor and meeting chairman Christian May acknowledged that the Tories struggled to gain the support that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn attracts for policies that are “well-received” by the public.

But all the Tory-supporting speakers at the event backed the prospect of more cuts to tax and spending across the board.

Scottish Tory MP Andrew Bowie said that austerity should not come to an end, at the meeting which was co-hosted by the Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA) and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA).

He said: “There should be an end of us using the term austerity.

“We are falling into the trap of using the language of the left. There were cuts made and some of them were very hard on certain groups of people.

“However we should deliver on the economy and we should help those who are struggling.

“We have not been bold enough in the past, hard decisions will have to be made.”

Mr Bowie said that the ditched dementia tax — the policy of pensioners selling their homes to pay for social care — led to the party being hammered by the press.

Steve Baker, MP and chairman of the European Research Group, said that the 2017 general election was a “disaster” and that the Tories “cocked up” their spending cuts plans.

He admitted that people on a community and local level would have felt the affects of austerity over the last nine years, but in the same breath said he thought more cuts would be needed.

TPA director John O’Connell said that the term “austerity” should not be used and referred to instead as “living within your means.”

He spoke against raising corportation tax, claiming that working-class voters were in favour of cutting taxes for big businesses as they fear for their jobs and “respect” that big companies “can up and leave their town any time they want.”

IEA associate director Kate Andrews admitted that the Tory government did cut spending in some areas “disproportionately.”