Sir Keir Starmer has accused Chancellor Jeremy Hunt of “admitting” pledges in the Conservative Party manifesto are “completely unfunded”.
The Tories have set out plans for billions in tax cuts, which the Tories claim would be paid for by £12 billion of savings on welfare.
But Labour say the money has already been spent after the BBC reported Mr Hunt last week wrote in a newsletter to prospective constituents in Surrey that the tax cuts would be funded by savings from an “enormous back to work programme (which I announced in the Autumn Statement last year)”.
Speaking during a visit to Southampton, Labour leader Sir Keir told reporters: “What has emerged this morning is truly extraordinary because what you’ve got is no less than the Chancellor admitting that the money that they were pretending was available in their manifesto for their desperate policies is in fact money that’s already been accounted for.
“So that means you’ve got a manifesto from the Tories which isn’t worth the paper on which it is written because it is completely unfunded.
“It is extraordinary – the fact that it has come from the Chancellor I think makes it even more extraordinary.”
He added: “The money isn’t there, that’s the major problem.”
Shadow Treasury minister Darren Jones said: “This private admission from Jeremy Hunt that the Conservatives’ welfare cuts are not new, the money has been spent, and their plans are therefore unfunded drives a coach and horses through his party’s manifesto.”
