Now we know: the Tories really will just say anything to get Cameron back into Downing Street

On April 9th, Tory Defence Secretary Michael Fallon made the most unpleasant intervention of the election campaign. In an article in The Times (£), he said that Ed Miliband would build an “unholy alliance” with the SNP to “gamble on Britain’s national security” by scrapping Trident. The stand-out quote, now infamous, was:

“He is willing to stab the United Kingdom in the back to become prime minister and put our country’s security at risk.”

Not only was it a nasty personal attack, it simply wasn’t true. Miliband has said, many times, that he will not budge on Trident: Labour will support its renewal.

Given his earlier comments, then, it was disconcerting to hear Fallon be so equivocal on the subject yesterday. Eight times he was asked if the Tories, as an opposition party, would vote to renew Trident, and eight times he simply wouldn’t answer. By the end of the short exchange, it was clear that for Fallon, Trident is just another topic to play politics with.

It is the Lib Dems who most often get the brunt of public anger over the political attainment gap: that space between what the parties say and what they do. But, while I have expressed concern before over how up front Labour have been over the level of cuts they will need to make, it is without doubt the Tories who have the most distant relationship with the truth.

In his piece, Fallon also accused Miliband of treating “our Union [as] just another bargaining chip” – a sentiment echoed by Cameron on yesterday’s front page.

Astonishing from Cameron, the political leader who has done most to put the UK at risk during this campaign pic.twitter.com/mmUUDXLmzz

— Conor Pope (@Conorpope) April 27, 2015

The Conservatives do not perceive the SNP gains as ‘substitute Labour seats’ as some commentators do, but as a inevitable timebomb for a potential Miliband Government, and death knell for Labour in Scotland. That’s why the posters of Salmond outside Downing St and Miliband in Sturgeon’s pocket are designed to maximise the SNP vote – and to Hell with the Union.

On cuts, they are no more forthright than Labour. Osborne has said there are plans for £12bn worth of cuts from the welfare budget, but has not hinted at what they might entail. So far, the subject has led to three awful interviews with Tory ministers. Following a nightmare radio appearance for David Gauke, both Matt Hancock and Michael Gove have failed to defend the plan-without-a-plan.

The Tories have form for these meaningless promises. In October 2010, Osborne said the deficit would be eliminated by 2015 – it has, by some measures, been halved at most. Before the last election Cameron drew up a ‘contract’ with the British public. “If we don’t deliver on our side of the bargain, vote us out in five year’s time,” he wrote. He said he would reduce net migration to the tens of thousands. Net migration rose to 300,000.

David Cameron’s claim to be the “greenest government ever” soon ended up with the rest of the “green crap” in the non-recyclable waste, and under his watch A&E waiting times have risen so much that it is more a Notional Health Service than anything else, despite his pledge to protect it.

While the Lib Dems will get it in the neck for their foolish tuition fee pledge, with NUS rolling out the not-so-subtle “Liar Liar” poster campaign, it is really the Conservative Party who will say anything to get back into power this year.