Labour’s stone pledges crumble already!
LABOUR may break its election pledges despite carving them in stone, Ed Miliband’s campaign boss said yesterday.
Lucy Powell said the party leader’s decision to have his election pledges chiselled into limestone did not mean it was ‘absolutely’ certain they would be honoured by a future Labour government.
Miss Powell, who is in day-to-day charge of the party’s campaign, told BBC Radio Five Live: ‘I don’t think anyone is suggesting that the fact that he’s carved them into stone means, you know, that he’s absolutely, you know, not going to break them or anything like that.’
Mr Miliband has been subjected to widespread ridicule for commissioning the 8ft 6in monolith, at an estimated cost of £ 30,000. He was mocked online with comparisons to Moses and critics warned the stone risks being a monument to hubris.
Labour has suggested the stone will be planted in the Downing Street rose garden as a constant reminder to Mr Miliband of the need to keep his promises. Unveiling the tombstone- shaped slab on Sunday, Mr Miliband said: ‘These six pledges are now carved in stone. They are carved in stone because they won’t be abandoned after the General Election.’
Conservative Party chairman Grant Shapps seized on Miss Powell’s comments, saying: ‘Labour know Ed Miliband has no intention of keeping the promises he makes during the election campaign.
‘His sums simply don’t add up. £30,000 worth of limestone doesn’t change the fact that Ed Miliband will say one thing and do another.
Labour’s campaign i s crumbling … They’re just not up to the job.’
Miss Powell last night claimed she had been misinterpreted and had meant ‘the opposite’. She pointed to other parts of her interview in which she said: ‘The point we are trying to make is that Ed Miliband stands by his pledges and promises.’
In a BBC interview last night, Mr Miliband insisted his promises would be kept, adding: ‘Carved in stone, delivered by a Labour government. Couldn’t be clearer.’ But David Cameron likened the Labour stunt to something from the cult political satire The Thick Of It.
He said: ‘I had to check it wasn’t April 1. I just couldn’t believe this was a serious proposition. If you’ve a problem with judgment and you are seen as a bit wonky, really is the answer to have an 8ft tombstone?
‘Anyone who has watched The Thick Of It [will know] there’s an episode where the Labour leader comes up with an expression for the hard-working people of Britain as the “quiet bat people”. I thought this tombstone was almost as odd … but there we are – takes all sorts.’
The creator of the BBC comedy suggested Labour’s pledge stone was beyond parody. In a message on Twitter, writer Simon Blackwell said: ‘Ed Miliband builds a policy cenotaph. And you wonder why we stopped doing The Thick Of It?’
Critics claim the decision to commission the stone, thought to have been weeks ago, is hubris from a Labour leader who insists he is not ‘measuring the curtains’ at No 10.
Labour officials have refused to say who commissioned the edifice or how much it cost, but insist the stunt is getting their pledges ‘talked about’. ÷ED Miliband has finally admitted that leaving a note in the Treasury to say there was no money left was a ‘stupid thing to do’.
Liam Byrne, Chief Secretary to the Treasury under Gordon Brown, left the message after losing the 2010 election. It was later published by his Lib Dem successor David Laws.
Asked about the letter in a Guardian interview, the Labour leader said: ‘Well the note was a stupid thing to do, but I think most voters are focused on the future.’
‘No intention of keeping promises’