Javid’s fury over Opposition costings block

SAJID JAVID was last night said to be “furious” with the Cabinet Secretary for blocking the publication of official costings of Labour’s policies.

Yesterday the Treasury was planning to publish the costings for nine Labour policies, which it said were part of standard pre-election procedure.

The Chancellor told the Cabinet of the plans, which had been scheduled to go

‘Caught red-handed trying to use civil servants for political purposes’

online on the Government’s website last week but were delayed. However, Sir Mark Sedwill, the Cabinet Secretary, intervened and gave it the “red light”.

It is believed this came after Sir Tom Scholar, the Permanent Secretary at the Treasury, made a “courtesy call” to John Mcdonnell, the shadow chancellor, and Mr Mcdonnell “kicked off ” about the publication, a government source said. A source close to the Chancellor last night said he was “pretty furious about this whole thing”.

The source said Sir Mark had known about the costings for a “fortnight” and the Cabinet Office has published advice on how to carry it out.

The calculations were expected to include a financial “scorecard” of Labour policies, and would have covered the Opposition’s plans for education and the NHS among other policies.

Labour said that the Government had been “caught red-handed trying to use civil servants for political purposes”.

However, Treasury sources said similar costings were made before past elections and are part of the civil service’s preparations for the event of the Opposition forming a government.

Mr Javid reportedly told the Cabinet that the Tories “must not squander the hard work of the British people during the decade of recovery” and that there would be a clear “economic narrative” around the campaign.

The Cabinet Office yesterday declined to comment.