WILLIAM HAGUE echoed Margaret Thatcher as he defended the savage spending cuts around the corner, saying: “There is no option but to do it”.

In an interview with the Daily Post, the Foreign Secretary also branded the reductions "Labour's cuts", because they were the consequence of Gordon Brown's bungling.

And he denied David Cameron's sudden decision to promise tax breaks to married couples was a "panic" measure, triggered by a Tory grassroots revolt over child benefit cuts.

Mr Hague said: "There is no panic over this, because we will put in place the policy the Chancellor announced on Monday. We will carry it through.

"We know there will be a bit of flak along the way but, in the end, people would not thank us for not carrying through these tough but fair choices."

Asked if the tax cuts for marriage were a bribe for unhappy, wealthy Tory supporters, Mr Hague replied: "There is no sop here. In our coalition agreement, we state our position on transferable tax allowances."

He also denied a direct link with the row over axing child benefit for 1.2m high-earning families, insisting the two measures were "not part of the same package".

Mr Hague chose to defend the spending cuts – £72bn over four years, to be announced on October 20 – with a phrase strikingly similar to Lady Thatcher's famous cry of “there is no alternative”.

The man, who is Mr Cameron's effective deputy, said: "We have no choice but to do it. It's not as if we are taking pleasure out of it. It's essential to the future of the country and the only hope for the future.”

That view is fiercely contested by many economists, who have criticised the timetable for wiping out the entire structural deficit of £109bn by 2015 as much faster than necessary to steady the markets.

Mr Hague also sought to counter fears that the cuts will widen the North-South divide, pointing to measures including the scrapping of National Insurance contributions for new, small businesses in the North and corporation tax cuts.

Critics have claimed reductions in corporation tax mostly benefit the big London-based banks, while the decision to axe investment allowances will punish manufacturing, particularly in the North.

But Mr Hague said: "We have targeted some measures outside the South-East, to help enterprise in those areas. That should help the economy in the north of England.

"We have to have a larger private sector in this country and that is particularly true of Yorkshire and the North West."