Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, will claim the Tories have amassed £25bn of unfunded spending commitments in its manifesto – the equivalent of £1,439 a year for every working household.
In a speech in Birmingham on Thursday, he will make another pitch for Labour as the party of fiscal responsibility by publishing an audit of spending and tax commitments in the Conservative party manifesto. He will say the Tory attitude to unfunded promises shows the need for an independent body such as the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to examine the pledges of the political parties before the general election.
The Balls pledge comes as Ed Miliband prepares to go head to head with the other opposition parties in a televised “challengers’ debate”. Due to the insistence of the Conservatives, David Cameron will not attend the debate broadcast by the BBC and Nick Clegg will be missing, but the Conservatives are planning to send spin doctors to the so-called spin room to set out their views, a move that has infuriated the Labour party.
Labour officials are asking why Cameron is not willing to attend the debate in person but thinks it is worthwhile to send communications people to denigrate Miliband’s performance.
One source said: “The Tories, having done their best to wreck these debates and now boycott them, still want to influence them. David Cameron should be represented by an empty chair. Instead, he will be represented by spin doctors.”
Miliband’s aides are determined to make sure his performance is not seen as a head-to-head with the SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, but he faces the danger of being seen as the voice of the political establishment and austerity, set against the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Green party leaders. Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, will also be present.
In his Birmingham speech earlier on Thursday, Balls will say: “All the party manifestos have now been published. And there is a now clear choice for the British people in three weeks’ time … A choice between real, concrete, fully-funded pledges from Labour or fantasy and unbelievable promises from the Tories.
“Every policy fully costed, fully funded, fully paid for with no additional borrowing. Concrete promises which we can and will deliver.
“The Tories think they can get away with ducking these questions. It’s no wonder David Cameron isn’t turning up the debate tonight and has done everything he can to avoid a head-to-head debate. But the Tories can’t just brush these questions under the carpet. So who will pay the price of these £25bn of promises which the Tories can’t say how they will pay for?”
The pledges include money for childcare, and £8bn for the NHS.
Balls will say that the OBR’s involvement would have helped improve trust in politics and the quality of debate in this election campaign: “We challenged George Osborne to back this move and give the OBR the power to do this. He repeatedly blocked this idea. And now we know why.”
It could be argued that the respected thinktank the Institute for Fiscal Studies has played a role in challenging the parties to set out their plans to fund their pledges, but the IFS does not have the status as the OBR.
