Labour hits back at Tories over spending claims

The Tories have just finished a press conference in Central London, where they’ve used Treasury figures based on dubious assumptions from Tory advisers to attack Labour for “uncosted spending commitments”. Labour HQ have already fired back (there’s an ongoing Twitter spat between the Tory and Labour press offices about the accuracy of the numbers), but there’s also a background briefing (don’t call it a dossier, we’ve had enough of dossiers already and it’s only January 5th) out from the party this afternoon that argues it’s the Tories not Labour who have made unfunded spending commitments.

George Osborne was asked at his press conference how he’d fund the £7 billion in tax cuts announced at Tory conference. He didn’t answer…

Update: Ed Balls has issued a strong statement attacking the Tory dossier as a “political smear”:

“This 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.

“Labour has made no unfunded spending or tax commitments. In contrast the Tories have made over £7 billion 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. 

“If the Tories wanted an honest debate they would stop blocking our proposal to allow the OBR to independently audit the manifestos of the main parties. And they would have allowed the Treasury to involve Labour in the production of proper costings, as I suggested in my letter to the Permanent Secretary yesterday. It’s now clear the Tories want to carry on spreading smears about Labour while avoiding independent scrutiny of their own plans.

“George Osborne claimed his plan is working. But there is nothing competent about Tory policies that leave working people worse off and lead to over £200 billion more borrowing than planned. Labour will cut the deficit every year and balance the books in a tough but fair way – not risk taking Britain back to public spending as a share of national income last seen in the 1930s.”