In 2007, the Conservative Party under Cameron's leadership pledged to meet Labour's spending on public services. However, since 2010, the coalition government led by David Cameron issued a nationwide programme of austerity. Comparing coalition austerity measures with the Opposition's, the "Financial Times" commentator Martin Wolf commented that the "big shift from Labour ... is the cuts in welfare benefits." The government's austerity programme is a series of sustained reductions in public spending, intended to reduce the government budget deficit and the welfare state in the United Kingdom.