Labour has rubbished a “dodgy dossier riddled with untruths” unveiled by George Osborne on Monday, which claimed that the party had committed to £21bn of extra spending.
The document, described by the Conservatives as a “Cost Analysis of Labour Party Policy”, makes claims about what Ed Miliband’s party would spend in the first year of a new parliament based on policies, statements by shadow ministers and assumptions about cuts that Labour would reverse. The Tories said the calculations were found on official Treasury costing of opposition policies as well as “other reliable sources”.
However, Osborne and four other Tory cabinet ministers saw their analysis immediately challenged after they talked through the document at a press conference at the top of Millbank Tower in London.
The publication was aggressively timed just an hour after Miliband launched his general election campaign in Salford, in which he said Labour was on a crusade to change the country and restore trust in politics by having 4 million doorstep conversations with voters.
One of the Conservative claims to be challenged was that £710m would go to ensure as many apprenticeships as university entries in the first year of a new Labour government. Labour’s pledge was only that it would be in place before 2025. The Conservatives said they had spread the cost over 10 years.
The dossier also assumed Labour would reverse £5bn of spending cuts, when shadow chancellor Ed Balls had specifically said he would not be able to overturn all the cuts and tax rises that the Conservatives had pushed through.
Another contested “uncosted” claim was the idea that giving the Green Investment Bank more borrowing powers would cost £3.7bn. Osborne has himself said that from 2015-16, subject to overall debt targets being met, the Conservatives also would allow the government-backed bank to “borrow and invest in a better future”.
A further spending item of £63m to bring back some abolished cycling initiatives appeared to be based merely on a Labour commitment to “take steps to promote cycling by making it safer and more accessible”.
Balls, responding to the document, said the “dodgy Tory dossier is riddled with untruths and errors on every page”.
“It isn’t an impartial exercise but a political smear based on false assumptions made by Tory advisers, including dozens of claims which are not even Labour’s policies,” he said.
Osborne came under further fire for condemning uncosted spending commitments as “foolish” when the Conservatives have dangled the prospect of £7bn of tax cuts for voters in the next parliament – without saying how this will be paid for.
Asked if he would explain how this would be paid for, the chancellor said: “We have set out the spending totals, and they are subject to debate at the moment, that would deliver a surplus of over £20bn. I think you can see from our record in this parliament, where we’ve achieved a £9bn reduction in income tax while bringing the deficit down and taking difficult spending decisions … Those tax reductions are a key part of our long-term economic plan. They are about incentivising work.”
Balls said: “Labour has made no unfunded spending or tax commitments. In contrast the Tories have made over £7bn a year of unfunded tax promises. George Osborne failed to explain today how they would be paid for. Will it be another VAT rise, even deeper cuts to public services or both? As the IFS said Labour has the most cautious approach of all the parties and has promised no net giveaways.”
Osborne was also challenged about why he would not let the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) audit the spending plans of political parties – a measure that Labour has been calling for to bring some neutrality to the debate.
Gus O’Donnell, the former most senior civil servant in Whitehall, told the BBC’s World at One that it would be an “extremely good idea” for this to happen.
Osborne said the budget watchdog had conducted an independent review last year, which concluded that “it was not right now to move the OBR into this space”.
“It’s something we’ve committed to look at in a new parliament,” he added.
