The Conservatives have defended Prime Minister Rishi Sunak—who claimed during Tuesday night’s debate Labour would put up taxes by £2,000 per household if it won the election—after the intervention of a senior civil servant.
James Bowler, the permanent secretary to the Treasury, wrote a letter earlier this week in which he said ministers should avoid suggesting civil servants had provided figures used in party political campaigns.
Five million people watched the head-to-head debate on ITV on Tuesday night—including those who watched it on the ITVX streaming service—during which Mr. Sunak repeatedly used the £2,000 figure.
The Tories tallied up what they assumed each policy would cost and estimated Labour’s proposals would cost an extra £38.5 billion over four years, which would amount to around £2,094 for every working household.
Sunak Claims It’s in Labour’s ‘DNA’ to Raise Taxes
“Mark my words Labour will put your taxes up, it’s in their DNA. Your work, your car, your pension, Labour will tax it,” he added.
Some of the estimates in the document were carried out by civil servants at the Treasury, using assumptions provided by politically appointed special advisers.
But Mr. Bowler said the headline figure of £38.5 billion should not be attributed to civil servants, whose role is to be impartial and non-partisan.
In a letter sent on Monday to Labour’s shadow Treasury chief secretary Darren Jones, Mr. Bowler said the Tory document “includes costs beyond those provided by the Civil Service.”
Mr. Bowler wrote: “Costings derived from other sources or produced by other organisations should not be presented as having been produced by the Civil Service.”
“I have reminded ministers and advisers that this should be the case,” he added.
Mr. Jones demanded Mr. Sunak apologised and said: “Civil servants confirmed they had told Tory ministers they were not allowed to say their dodgy attacks on Labour were independently done by civil servants.
“Last night Rishi Sunak did it anyway. He lied to the British people. He must apologise,” he added.
But Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho repeated the claim on Wednesday morning.
She told “BBC Breakfast,” “I’ve worked in the Treasury and I can tell you that these are brilliant, independent civil servants and they would not be putting anything dodgy in there.”
But shadow paymaster general Jonathan Ashworth said: “I feel that Rishi Sunak was exposed as desperate last night, desperately lying about Labour’s tax plans, making accusations about Labour’s tax plans which are categorically untrue.”
“Labour will not put up income tax, will not put up national insurance, will not put up VAT,” he added.
But a Savanta survey put Sir Keir ahead by 53 percent to 47 percent, with 54 percent of viewers perceiving the Labour leader as the “most honest,” compared to 29 percent for Mr. Sunak.
The YouGov survey also found only 17 percent of ITV viewers thought it was helpful exercise and 62 percent described it as “frustrating.”
YouGov surveyed 1,657 adults in the UK and Savanta spoke to 1,153 people.
On Friday night the BBC will host a second televised debate, hosted by Mishal Husain.
Mr. Sunak and Mr. Starmer will be joined by the Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey, the SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, Plaid Cymru’s Rhun ap Iorwerth, Nigel Farage from Reform UK, and the Green Party’s co-leader Carla Denyer.
ITV is due to host another seven-party debate on June 13 and the following week the leaders of the Conservatives, Labour, the Liberal Democrats, and the SNP will take part in a “Question Time” special.
A final head-to-head debate between Mr. Sunak and Mr. Starmer will be shown on the BBC on June 26.
