Mel Stride found himself on the receiving end of a creative accountancy trick deployed by his own party during a tense Sky News interview today.
Figures compiled by the news channel show that the Conservatives have increased taxes by £13,000 per household since the last General Election in 2019.
Economics editor Ed Conway used the same Tory modelling which supported Rishi Sunak’s attack line on Tuesday evening during the leader’s debate in which he accused Labour of trying to saddle households with a further £2,000 in tax if they get elected.
The figure has been widely discredited since, with James Bowler, the most senior civil servant in the Treasury, saying officials in his department had not been involved in producing that number.
In his letter to Labour, Bowler said he had cautioned senior Conservative Party officials and advisers against suggesting that the £38.5 billion figure was based on Treasury analysis.
He said that “any costings derived from other sources or produced by other organisations should not be presented as having been produced by the Civil Service,” adding that he had “reminded Ministers and advisers that this should be the case.”
In a statement Wednesday, Labour said Sunak had “lied eleven times to the British people” about the party’s tax plans. “Labour will not raise taxes on working people.
It’s the Tories who have made £71 billion of unfunded promises that will mean higher taxes and higher borrowing,” the party wrote in an emailed campaign message.
On Sky News, Stride struggled to defend figures showing his party has hiked taxes by £13,000 per person using the same modelling his party deployed on Tuesday.
Watch the clip in full below: