George Osborne focuses on big picture and trust to undermine Labour

How can the Conservatives deal with Labour’s attack on the cost of living? As I explained last week, the party believes that the best way to address the opposition’s focus on living standards is to talk about the bigger picture rather than the ‘footling little things’. Senior Tories I’ve spoken to in the past week are very confident indeed that because they enjoy the trust of voters on the economy, while voters still blame Labour for the mess, they don’t need to worry about the strategy that Ed Miliband has adopted. One senior figure remarked to me this weekend that ‘Labour has mis-fired: when we’ve got such a poll lead on the economy, why should voters think anything Labour has to say about cost of living is credible?’ Some backbenchers disagree, by the way: they’re anxious that ministers should still make announcements this week on the little things. But it’s clear that at the top, they’re pretty upbeat.