Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

And now a porkie from Labour: spending is not (really) heading back to 1930s levels

Another day, another poster – and this time, it’s Labour stretching the truth. The above is the same trick as George Osborne was playing with the deficit. The reader is invited to believe that the Tories would cut state spending back to 1930s levels ‘when there was no NHS’ – or much of a welfare state at all, come to think of it. In truth, George Osborne has (unwisely, in my view) pledged to increase NHS spending if re-elected and overall state spending will be at least five times higher than in the 1930s. So how can Labour get away with this – and how did this deception enter the public realm?

This ‘1930s’ line was the biggest single vulnerability of George Osborne’s statement last month. He should have spotted that this was the obvious attack line, and he should have closed it down before Labour used it as a stick to beat him with.

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