Tories accused of “desperate lies” over tax claim

In an email sent out to Boris Johnson supporters by master of the dark asrts Lynton Crosby today, the Australian spinner made a remarkable claim:

“But Ken Livingstone’s hand picked Deputy Mayoral running mate in the Assembly is leading the Labour charge against the freeze, instead promoting an increase in council tax.”

Of course, this is untrue. There is no proposal for a council tax increase from Labour. The attack was slammed by Leader of the Labour group on the London Assembly Len Duvall this morning as “desperate lies”.

So will Crosby and the Boris Johnson campaign correct their…ahem…misleading statement?

Update: Tom Watson MP has taken up the attack on Crosby and challenged him to withdraw his “fabrication:

“Lynton Crosby is an old hand at dirty tricks, as we know from his dog-whistle tactics in the 2005 Conservative general election campaign and his right-wing career in Australia.

“Crosby put knife crime at the heart of his 2008 Mayoral election but knife crime against young people has risen in every year that Boris Johnson has been Mayor, up a staggering 29 per cent since 2008/9. Why doesn’t he mention it now?

“Now Crosby has lied about the council tax. I’m challenging him to withdraw his council tax fabrication and apologise to Val Shawcross. Anything less will expose Boris Johnson’s campaign as politically bankrupt and desperate.”