Schools budget could face cuts as the coalition row over spending escalates Vince Cable, the business secretary, said it was wrong to protect certain departmental budgets while offering no guarantee to others. Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA The schools budget may be offered up for further cuts as the Tories intensify pressure on the Liberal Democrats to accept reductions to the £166bn welfare budget in a crucial spending round for the immediate post general election period that is due to be announced this summer. As a group of cabinet members, known inside Whitehall as the National Union of Ministers, agitate to prevent further cuts to their departments there is growing speculation that the schools budget could be identified for cuts if it turns out welfare has to be protected. David Cameron and George Osborne are bracing themselves for a bruising few months as ministers from both sides of the coalition embark on what one Whitehall source described as "lots of shroud waving" ahead of the forthcoming spending review. Theresa May, the home secretary, is the leading figure in the militant group of cabinet figures agitating against further cuts as the chancellor seeks to find a further £10bn of cuts for 2015-16. Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, was the first member of the groups to break cover publicly when he said over the weekend there was a "body of opinion" in the cabinet that the welfare budget needs to be reviewed again. Vince Cable, the business secretary, described himself on ITV News on Monday night as a member of the militants' shop steward committee when he said it was wrong to protect certain departmental budgets, such as health and international development, while offering no guarantee to others. But Cable highlighted differences between Tory and Lib Dem ministers of the militant group when he challenged Hammond's call to make further cuts to welfare and even called for tax increases to tackle the fiscal deficit. Asked on ITV News whether further cuts could be made to the welfare budget, the business secretary said: "It is very difficult to do more in that area. There's already a lot of pain been experienced. We are dealing with a mix of things. It's departmental spending, it's welfare, it's tax. You could argue that probably that isn't playing a big enough contribution to get the budget under control. Downing Street indicated that the Lib Dems have won the day on welfare when the prime minister's spokesman said that the spending review for 2015-16 would focus on "departmental expenditure limits" (DEL) - which refers to non welfare spending. The spokesman said: "The autumn statement from 2012 has already £3.6bn worth of additional welfare savings for the year 2015-2016. So the government has already set out additional welfare savings. If new and specific proposals were to emerge they would need to be considered. But ... the government was clear [in the autumn statement last year] that the spending process for 2015-2016 ... will consider DEL spending as opposed to AME [annually managed expenditure, which includes most welfare spending]. The Treasury has its eye on cuts to the £146bn of departmental spending that is not protected by guarantees. More than half (£182.1bn) of DEL spending of £328.9bn is protected because it covers the NHS, schools, overseas aid and the defence equipment budget. That explains why May and Hammond, dubbed by one Whitehall source as "Nimbyists," are fighting hard to protect their budgets. But some senior Tories are sympathetic to the arguments of May and Hammond that welfare should be cut further. They would like, at the very least, to embarrass the Lib Dems who are saying that no further cuts can be made to the welfare budget after the £3.6bn identified in the autumn statement last year. It is understood the Lib Dems may be told that the schools budget, one of their main priorities after they succeeded in introducing the "pupil premium" targeted at poor pupils, may be offered up for cuts. A Whitehall source said: "It looks like they are going to come after the schools budget [which has a "flat cash" guarantee to rise in line with inflation until 2015]. There are few other places for them to go for cuts. The chancellor would dearly like to introduce further cuts to the welfare budget which, at £166.98bn in 2011-12, accounts for a large proportion of the government's overall £698.89bn spending bill. But it is understood that Osborne will have to declare that further cuts to the welfare bill will have to await the election of a majority Conservative government. The debate on welfare leaves Iain Duncan Smith in agreement, and at odds, with Downing Street and the Lib Dems. The work and pensions secretary would happily see further cuts in welfare after he offered £10bn of cuts in the autumn spending review when he called for withdrawing housing benefits from the under 25s and to cap child-related benefits for families at two children. These were vetoed by the Lib Dems. But Duncan Smith agrees with the Lib Dems that it is wrong to continue paying benefits, such as winter fuel allowance, to rich pensioners. He accepts, however, that the prime minister made a commitment at the last election to uphold these benefits for the course of this parliament. The first month of the 2015-16 financial year falls in this parliament which means that the chancellor cannot touch them in the forthcoming spending review. One senior Whitehall figure took a weary view of the battles ahead. The NUM is the usual stuff - it happens before every spending review. Lots of shroud waving but how many of the terrible predictions before the last spending review came true? The cuts will happen and everyone will move on.