The leaders of the two main political parties locked horns at MediaCityUK’s dock10 last night in the first televised debate of the 2024 general election campaign, with PM Rishi Sunak widely credited for pulling off something of a surprise ‘win’ after repeatedly landing blows on odds-on favourite-to-succeed-him Keir Starmer over “treasury figures” on the cost of Labour’s planned policies.
A Labour government would cost every UK tax payer £2,000 a year, said Sunak repeatedly, citing “independent Treasury officials.” It was a successful tactic, particularly with Starmer inexplicably declining to challenge the PM’s claims until the show was almost over, and the claim made it onto the front pages of the Telegraph, Express, Times and Mail this morning.
Unfortunately, it seems the claim may not have been entirely true, according to a letter unearthed this morning by the BBC’s Chief Political Correspondent Henry Zaffman.
The letter, sent by chief secretary to the Treasury James Bowler to his shadow Darren Jones and dated June 3, explicitly takes up the Conservatives’ Labour costings, stating that they “should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service.”
Bowler added in the letter that he had “reminded ministers and advisers” of this, which must have come as a disappointment not only to Sunak, but other Tory ministers such as Claire Coutinho, who has been on what feels like every media channel in the land since the sparring partners retired to the dock10 green room last night citing the Treasury, and Bowler personally, as the source of the figures.
Why Starmer didn’t mention the letter last night, rather than wait around 50 minutes to dismiss Sunak’s claims as “garbage,” only he knows. Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves was a little more proactive on the campaign trail in Glasgow this morning: “The prime minister lied in the debate last night. Labour has no plans to increase taxes on working people,” she said.
On balance, that’s probably about as rooted in reality as Sunak’s previous sketchy tax claims, but it all makes good telly.
