Ed Miliband famously forgot to mention the deficit in his 2014 conference speech, but you would have thought that at least some prospective Labour MPs consider it to be a crucial issue facing Britain. The country is, after all, spending £46bn a year on debt interest payments alone – the equivalent of the Defence, Home Office and Foreign Office budgets combined.
But not so, according to new research presented at a briefing by Ipsos MORI this morning. The pollster interviewed new prospective parliamentary candidates from each of the four main parties – all standing in marginal or safe seats – and asked them to name their political priorities. Of the 29 Labour PPCs surveyed, not a single one brought up the £75bn budget deficit as a key issue facing Britain today. By contrast, more than a third of Conservatives (35 per cent) mentioned it, as did even 9 per cent of SNP candidates.
The Tories have a similar blind spot on the matter of inequality.
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