The key quote
‘Labour would spend £1.2 trillion over the next five years’
Conservative Party, Nov 10, 2019.
Analysis
The Conservative Party says it has tallied how much Labour policies will cost over five years.
However, the list includes policies that Labour might not adopt in its manifesto, which formally sets out commitments at the election.
For example, the Tories allege there would be a cost of £35 billion to “abolish private schools”. Labour said in October that this was not its policy.
Others seem overstated. The list says it will cost £85 billion to reduce public sector working hours to 32 hours a week — something Labour announced it wanted to move towards over a decade, not put in place from day one.
Some figures are reasonable. Some are from Labour’s press releases — for example, £14 billion on school buildings and £30 billion for upgrading housing and energy saving.
Over a quarter of the total is for renationalisation. For example, it includes a Labour plan from 2017 to renationalise various industries costed at £196 billion.
But the methodology behind this figure is disputed.
The Tories also seem to have double-counted the cost of renationalising the National Grid, including it in the cost of both Labour’s 2017 plans and its supposed 2019 plans.
Verdict
You can’t work out the cost of a manifesto that hasn’t been published yet.
Full Fact is the UK’s independent factchecking organisation. For sources and more factchecks go to fullfact.org
