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Dodgy Dossier? Accusations Fly As Election Campaigns Begin
Other | Tuesday 6th January 2015 | Matt
It’s going to be a long five months. The first day of campaigning is over and we’ve already seen the battle lines drawn: Labour attacks the Conservatives on the NHS; while the Conservatives tell us you can’t trust Labour with the economy. It didn’t take long for accusations and dirty tricks to start flying.
The day began with a speech by Labour leader Ed Miliband, in which he laid out his party’s commitment to preserving the NHS against future cuts and privatisation. “Hope, not falsehood” was his planned message, yet the Conservatives quickly attempted to derail the impact of Miliband’s speech by releasing an 81 page document claiming to demonstrate a funding shortfall in Labour’s spending commitments to the tune of £20.7bn.
Flanked by Tory heavyweights William Hague, Theresa May, Sajid Javid and Nicky Morgan, George Osborne held a press conference in which he attempted to defend the document and undermine Miliband’s speech. Despite Tory claims that their analysis was rigorously sourced from actual Labour policy and policy direction as hinted at by party conference speeches, the day quickly descended into farce as the national press and Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls began picking apart the ‘dodgy dossier’ and its wildly egregious inaccuracies. This then led to the release of a counter dossier, entitled “The Tories’ Smear Analysis of Labour Party Policy”, a point-by-point refutation of the figures claimed by Osborne’s document. Osborne’s press conference began to backfire somewhat, as reporters began asking increasingly hostile questions.
One ITV reporter suggested that the Tories’ dossier was utterly speculative and as such ‘complete nonsense’, whilst others were quick to charge the Chancellor with hypocrisy, asking how he planned to fund the £7bn tax cuts he has promised.
After the smoke cleared, both sides had been bruised by this initial tussle. Ed Balls was forced to admit he cannot commit to reversing a number of the Coalition’s cuts and public sector pay freezes, somewhat dulling the optimism of Labour’s campaign early on. Meanwhile, claims by the Tories of wanting to run a ‘clean campaign’ have been shown to be utterly empty, and their ill-advised attempt to discredit Labour’s fiscal outlook has left the Conservatives looking both opportunistic and hypocritical. Ultimately, Labour have had the last laugh for now, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies stating that Labour have actually been the most level-headed party in planning their pre-election spending commitments. In fact, the whole episode has reinforced Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls’ suggestion that the Office for Budget Responsibility as an independent body should be responsible for costing the policy commitments of the separate parties, rather than leaving it up to pessimistic assumption by the opposing sides.
Labour’s biggest misstep of the day may have actually been branding the Tory document a ‘dodgy dossier’, reminiscent of the notoriously dodgy or ‘sexed up’ dossier compiled by Labour spin-doctor Alistair Campbell that made erroneous claims about the extent of Saddam Hussein’s WMD capabilities. It's been ten years, Labour, but jibes like that are probably still a bit too soon.
Where are the Liberal Democrats in this? Well, Nick Clegg has planted himself firmly on the fence once again, stating in a speech that his party would be open to coalition with either Labour or the Conservatives. Claims that his party could be the ‘heart’ of a Tory regime or the ‘spine’ of a Labour one seem spurious at best, given the party’s inability to locate either within itself during the last five years, and it seems the Lib Dem dream of achieving a full majority that felt at least plausible back in 2010 has been put to bed once and for all. Clegg has at least hinted that he has a back bone, attempting to derail Theresa May's counter terrorism bill by attempting to add much needed judicial safeguards. We wait and see.
Matt Stefanyszyn
