Rachel Reeves ridiculed for publishing ‘dodgy file’

Labour was mocked yesterday over a ‘dodgy dossier’ claiming the Tories‘ pledges would send annual mortgage payments soaring by £4,800.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves published the document, which claimed tax cuts announced in the Tory manifesto just hours earlier were ‘unfunded’ and would send mortgage costs rocketing.

But within minutes, the figure was criticised by experts for barely being plausible. Embarrassingly, Labour published a ‘corrected’ version of the document after it was pointed out some figures evaluating Tories’ plans had pluses and minuses mixed up.

This dispute comes after a separate row erupted last week over Tory claims that Labour’s own plans would force taxes up on families by £2,094.

Yesterday Ms Reeves, unveiling the document Tory Manifesto: The Money’s Not There, denied cherry-picking the ‘scariest’ figures. She also dodged the question of why she said in her speech that it ‘will’ increase mortgage payments by £4,800 while in the document it merely says that they ‘could’ rise this much.

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves speaks at a press conference in central London, responding to the launch of the Conservative Party’s manifesto 

Asked if she was not ‘guilty here of doing the thing you accuse the Tories of?’, she replied: ‘So, if you go through the documents, particularly the scorecard, it sets out £71billion of unfunded commitments during the course of this Parliament.

‘The Treasury’s estimate shows a one percentage point increase in government borrowing adds 56 basis points to mortgage rates and that’s where the figure of £4,800 during the course of the next Parliament comes from.’

However, the £71billion figure assumes the Tories would abolish National Insurance completely – which it has not pledged to do.

And the document merely states 56 basis points ‘could’ be added to mortgage rates and that payments ‘could’ increase by £4,800.

Sir Keir Starmer slammed Rishi Sunak for a ‘Jeremy Corbyn-style manifesto’ before the Tories launched its General Election plan

A Conservative Party spokesman said: ‘Rachel Reeves’ dodgy dossier is full of complete nonsense and capped off with the extraordinary claim that it will cost the taxpayer £5.7billion to cut the civil service back to pandemic levels.’

Sir Keir Starmer slammed Rishi Sunak for a ‘Jeremy Corbyn-style manifesto’ before the Tories launched its General Election plan.

The Labour leader’s statement raised eyebrows given he served in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet and said in 2019 the manifesto offered ‘real change’ and ‘an ambition to meet the needs’ of the country and campaigned for it.

Yesterday Sir Keir claimed the Tories ‘load everything into the wheelbarrow, don’t provide the funding and hope that nobody notices. The money isn’t there.’