PUBLIC services face sharp cuts under both Labour and Tory manifestos, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The parties have provided little information about the funding outlook for individual services, making it easier for them to stay silent on cuts to unprotected budgets, the think tank has warned.

In a new briefing note, the institute said it had not expected either to conduct comprehensive spending reviews for a potential five-year parliament in their manifestos.

But they could have provided more details on their priorities and rough minimums or totals for different areas of spending in a bid to “give a sense of what we can realistically expect from them,” it said.

The researchers said the lack of department-by-department plans post-March 2025 has made it impossible to evaluate the cost of committing to a given path of spending — but also “means that parties can commit in their manifestos to overall spending plans that imply sharp real-terms cuts to a range of areas without spelling out where those cuts will fall or how they are to be achieved.”

Research economist Bee Boileau, an author of the report, said: “Both Conservative and Labour Party have made a lot of their ‘fully funded’ pledges in the manifestos this election campaign. But, in practice, these pledges mean almost nothing for the funding that individual public services might expect in the next parliament.

“We do not know how total spending will be allocated between public services after next March, and, with a few exceptions, neither manifesto offered much light.

“The manifestos did tell us that neither party is planning to top up total public service spending by enough to avoid very difficult choices for many public services in the next parliament.

“But the manifestos provided no information on which areas would actually bear the brunt of these choices, continuing the main parties’ conspiracy of silence when it comes to public service spending plans.”

Nuffield Foundation’s director of welfare Mark Franks said: “The public should be informed about whether the parties aiming to form the next government have credible plans for funding the essential public services that people rely on.

“In this election, voters are being asked to make their decision without adequate and clear information on this critical issue.

A Momentum spokeswoman said: “There is no fixing the country on the cheap.

“If Labour fails to deliver the investment required to rebuild public services, living standards will continue to decline, leaving behind cynicism and despair, creating perfect conditions for the far right.”