LABOUR SPENDING COVER-UP
Treasury makes routine costing of party’s pledges McDonnell rages – and demands it’s NOT made public To Javid’s fury, head of the Civil Service caves in
SAJID Javid was locked in a furious row with the head of the civil service last night after he blocked plans to publish official costings for Labour’s ‘ eye- watering’ election pledges.
In an extraordinary move, the Cabinet Secretary Sir Mark Sedwill ordered the Treasury to halt publication of an official analysis of Labour’s key pledges, saying it was too close to the election.
Sir Mark’s decision followed an angry complaint from Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who accused ministers of ‘politicising’ the civil service by asking officials to provide a realistic estimate of the cost of a Labour government.
But last night Treasury sources hit back, saying it had been ‘standard practice’ to publish official costings of opposition policies since 2010, when Gordon Brown ordered the Treasury to cost David Cameron’s plans.
At the 2015 election, George Osborne also published a Treasury analysis of Labour’s plans.
Mr Javid, who briefed the Cabinet on the documents yesterday, was said to be ‘furious’ with Sir
Mark over the decision. A Treasury source said: ‘It is madness. This is a well-established process and Sedwill was kept in the loop at every stage – he has known about it for weeks. This version of it has been under way for a couple of weeks and publication has been pencilled in since last Friday.
‘But it seems like one phone call from McDonnell is all it takes to get Sedwill running for cover. It is just extraordinary that he has rolled over for Labour.
‘You also have to ask why John McDonnell is so afraid of having his policies properly costed – what is he trying to hide?’
The Chancellor had asked Treasury officials to draw up costings for nine key Labour policies, including the scrapping of university tuition fees, the introduction of a four-day working week and the offer of free bus passes for all under-25s.
An analysis by the Centre for Policy Studies yesterday forecast that the four-day week plan alone would add £17billion a year to the public sector wage bill – equivalent to £85billion over a five-year parliament.
The Treasury analysis is understood to have found that the total cost of Labour’s plans runs into hundreds of billions of pounds. One government source described the bill as ‘eye-watering’, adding: ‘The public have a right to know this information. We have a Labour Party racking up enormous spending pledges and failing to be honest about what they will cost and who will have to pay.’
However, with the dissolution of Parliament last night, it is now too late for the Treasury to publish the documents. Election ‘purdah’ imposes tight restrictions on the ability of officials to handle material that could be seen as politically sensitive.
Mr McDonnell described the Treasury plan as ‘an abuse of power’ which was ‘completely contrary to everything we expect from the civil service in this country’.
He had been informed of the plans in a phone call from Treasury permanent secretary Sir Tom Scholar yesterday morning. Mr McDonnell, who is promising to provide costing of his own plans, is said to have ‘kicked off in a massive way’ at the idea.
He confirmed the conversation last night, telling The Independent: ‘I said first of all, one you do not know what is in the manifesto so that is pure speculation.
‘Secondly, this being done within hours of the formal campaign being undertaken. Thirdly, I think it’s an abuse of power.’ Earlier, Mr
Javid told the Cabinet that the publication of analysis of the true cost of Labour was part of a wider drive to cement the Tories’ reputation as the party of ‘fiscal responsibility’.
Isaac Levido, the Tory campaign chief, told the Cabinet the issue of economic competence would be a key theme of the election.
He said: ‘This is going to be a fully-costed manifesto. The contrast between us and Labour is that we are fiscally responsible and taking decisions with the economy in mind.’
Ministers believed there was no issue with impartial Treasury officials being asked to cost opposition policies, citing the precedents set by Mr Brown in 2010 and Mr Osborne in 2015.
Sir Mark initially agreed, and the Cabinet Office produced internal guidance on how the matter should be handled a fortnight ago.
After the Chancellor briefed the Cabinet, Sir Tom made a ‘courtesy call’ to inform Mr McDonnell the material was being published.
Sir Tom then informed Sir Mark of the Shadow Chancellor’s objections and at 5pm the Cabinet Secretary ordered the publication to be halted.
Labour sources said the civil service had forced the Government into a U-turn. A source said: ‘This is an embarrassing slapdown to Tory ministers who were blatantly trying to use the civil service for political purposes.’
‘Rolled over for Labour’ ‘It’s an abuse of power’