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Gifts from The Morning Star
Tories' Labour smear attempts fall flat

FRONT-BENCH Tories tried to smear Labour during a bizarre podium line-up yesterday in a feeble bid to relaunch their two-day-old election campaign.

But their desperate warnings on the Armageddon that could hit Britain if they are booted out in May soon began to unravel.

Numerically challenged Chancellor George Osborne roped in party grandees William Hague and Theresa May to shore up the claim that they can be trusted with the economy.

They threw stones at Labour’s spending plans in a transparent bid to recover from the botched Tory campaign launch — since widely ridiculed for misleading claims on Britain’s economic performance on their watch.

Mr Osborne suggested that voters faced a choice between “competence or chaos,” claiming that his Treasury sidekicks had calculated Labour’s plans included £20.7bn of unfunded spending — which party leader Ed Miliband rubbished as “completely false.”

Mr Hague said people faced higher taxes and mortgage rates.

Ms May predicted a £1 billion black hole in Home Office and Ministry of Justice pledges.

Culture Secretary Sajid Javid said Labour would “run deficits permanently, adding to debt indefinitely.”

And Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said schools would be “put at risk.”

But Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls batted away the attack, branding the Conservatives’ analysis a “dodgy dossier” that was “riddled with untruths and errors on every page.”

He demanded that the independent Office for Budgetary Responsibility be handed the duty of auditing the cost of election manifesto policies.

“Labour has made no unfunded spending or tax commitments,” Mr Balls said.

“In contrast the Tories have made over £7bn a year of unfunded tax promises.

“George Osborne failed to explain today how they would be paid for.”

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