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David Cameron explained his role in devising the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) today when he was grilled by a panel of senior MPs.
The prime minister gave evidence to the Commons liaison committee on a variety of issues over the course of a mammoth two and a half hour session this afternoon.
Comprised of the 33 chairs of the individual Commons committees, the committee questions the prime minister twice a year.
Alan Beith, chair of the justice committee and the liaison committee, welcomed David Cameron and told him the Q&A session was not like prime minister's questions.
"That's a relief," Cameron joked.
Beith asked him how often he was involved in "refereeing" disputes between the Treasury and departments during the spending review process.
The prime minister said he "set the strategy" from the start of the process, and the CSR itself involved departments themselves identifying cuts.
The "Quad" meetings with Cameron, the deputy prime minister, chancellor and chief secretary met nine times to work out the right approach.
Those meetings were a success in making the decisions collective and the process more "collegiate" than under the last government, he said.
Beith asked if the prime minister intervened to make his views known.
Cameron said there were "obviously" disputes between the Treasury and other departments but he only became involved when they were not resolved.
He told the committee he had taken the decision at the start to bear down on pay, pensions and welfare. If he had not done so there would have been "unacceptable" cuts to other services, and that focus on the big spending items made the process easier.
Cameron said he took a strategic decision to protect some departments and capital spending, with a strong emphasis on fairness and social mobility.
Andrew Tyrie, chair of the Treasury committee, said the review was not comprehensive because of "untouchable" budgets such as the NHS.
The prime minister said it was a "contentious decision" to ring-fence health spending, but the cost pressures on the NHS are so huge it would have been difficult enough just to keep its budget in line with inflation.
"You have got to take the country with you," he added.
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