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Conservative plans hide £60billion black hole, says Chancellor
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor4 Jan 2010
Alistair Darling accused the Tories of hiding a £60billion shortfall in their economic plans today as he claimed David Cameron wanted to win the election "on a nod and a wink".
In an attempt to repeat the Tories' demolition of Labour's tax and spend plans in 1992, Mr Darling produced a 150-page dossier costing Conservative pledges.
The Chancellor said there was a £34billion gap between what the Tories were planning in tax cuts and spending commitments and the amount they would raise from tax rises and spending cuts.
Mr Darling added that Mr Cameron's promise to start halving Britain's huge deficit faster than Labour would also be highly costly.
He said that if the Tories repaid the deficit in three years - rather than the four years planned by the Treasury - that would leave an extra £26billion shortfall.
In a press conference that set the tone for Labour's general election campaign, Mr Darling said that the Conservatives had accounted for only about a quarter of the funding needed to deliver their pledges.
Using official Treasury estimates of opposition policies, he claimed Tory plans on everything from hospitals to jails were underfunded.
For example, Conservative plans to give NHS patients single rooms could cost £9.5billion over five years, rather than the £1.5 billion the party claimed.
The Chancellor said Mr Cameron had spent the past couple of years telling people "whatever he thinks they want to hear". He added: "You can't fight an election on a nod and a wink, sometimes claiming you are committed to promises, and when challenged claiming you are not."
Mr Darling said he would present legislation to Parliament tomorrow enshrining the Government's commitment to halving the deficit over the next four years.
The Conservatives hit back at Labour's "negative" claims, dismissing it as a "dodgy dossier full of lies". They said that an early review showed at least £16billion of the claims were inaccurate.
Among the examples were the £5.2billion for abolishing stamp duty on shares, which the Tories said was not Conservative Party policy, and figures on their Swedish-style schools policy.
The party stressed that it was not committed to reversing the new 50p tax rate or new pensions tax rise for higher earners - both worth around £6 billion. Similarly, Mr Cameron had not committed to a £4.9billion tax break for married couples, although there would be some, as yet unspecified, tax relief.
Reader views (7)
It is rather pathetic watching Darling floundering around. Should he not be trying to support his own wretched government's failing plicies rather than attacking the Tories ?
Let us be rid of the whole bunch as soon as possible.
- Michael, London, UK, 04/01/2010 19:33
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The Conservatives are using the Boris method of costing by only giving part of the picture.
It may only cost £1.5 billion to convert all of the existing multi-bed wards in to single beds. But that will reduce the bed numbers by around 40% as you can get far fewer single bedrooms per ward.
The extra £8 billion is what it will take to provide new beds to replace the ones lost by converting all the old wards to single bedrooms.
This shows that the Conservatives pledge is either naive or deliberately deceptive.
- Andrew, London W1, 04/01/2010 17:50
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Perhaps Darling should think about his own shortfalls
- Lindona, italy, 04/01/2010 15:02
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Darling ought to know all about "black holes" - It was he and Brown who between them dug one so deep that it will take about 30 years for us to dig ourselves out of it. Their arrogance and total inability to admit failure beggars belief.
- R.F.York, Yorks, UK, 04/01/2010 14:05
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I would vote for a straw man rather than the donkeys we have in Downing St. at the moment. When will Labour get the message that just spending more money doesn't achieve anything!
- Mark, London, 04/01/2010 13:55
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The main point is that it is primarily the government in power that have responsibility to set out clearly how they will address budgetary deficits and get their borrowing under control. The clear consensus amongst econonmists and rating agencies is that Darling and Brown have failed to do so.
Why in any case would anyone trust a word from two such financially irresponsible clowns as Darling and Brown, especially the latter who claimed that Britain would lead the world out of recession ? Would either of them like to explain honestly why in fact we turn out to be the last major economy in recession ?
- Andrew, Hampton Hill, 04/01/2010 13:48
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This £60B black hole? Mr Darling , you and your "light touch" friend in No 10 have created a black hole so large that none of the electorate can possibly grasp the extent of your incompetence so please do stop worrying about the small change and make the public realise that you have cocked up big time and we the taxpayers are going to have to pay more and more to get you out of the s**t!
- Colin Macpherson, Gramat France, 04/01/2010 13:33
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