Figures published by the Treasury have revealed cuts in education spending by more than £100m in the next year.
The Daily Telegraph reports today that 14 of 23 departments will see budgets fall next year, including the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills which will be subject to spending cuts of 24.6 per cent.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne said the figures had demonstrated the "Labour lie on spending once and for all".
"Gordon Brown should now abandon his dishonest claim that he can go on increasing spending and accept that we Conservatives have been right to say that spending has to be cut to deal with this government's debt crisis," he said.
But the Treasury denied that "cuts" would be introduced, insisting that £3bn in spending this year had been brought forward from next year's budget.
"The reductions are not cuts, as spending has been brought forward from subsequent years' budgets," a spokesman said.
"It is not correct to say the government is cutting overall spending."
The figures also reveal that key departments such as transport and defence are to see cuts of almost eight per cent.
Meanwhile, some of the country's highest profile cultural projects could be halted after a £100m shortfall was discovered in the Department for Culture Media and Sport.
An inquiry has been launched by ministers into the development of the vast overspend, with officials admitting that "difficult decisions" will need to be taken on cutbacks.
