Andrew Stephenson MP: Labour’s negative and disingenuous campaign in Oldham East and Saddleworth is based on dodgy claims, shaky statistics and lies

Andrew Stephenson is MP for Pendle, a Conservative Party vice chairman and Campaign Manager for the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election.

As we enter the last few days of the by-election campaign in Oldham East and Saddleworth, it’s no surprise that Labour are resorting to dodgy claims and shaky statistics to hold on to the seat.

In contrast to Kashif Ali’s positive campaign, Labour are misleading voters about public spending and, more specifically, police budget cuts in this by-election.

The first piece of chicanery surrounds what they would do, if they were in government, to deal with their disastrous legacy of debt. Their candidate in Oldham, Debbie Abrahams, has said there is a ‘strong Labour alternative’ to our deficit reduction programme.  But we all know, from Ed Miliband’s admission that Labour’s policies are a blank piece of paper, they haven’t provided a credible alternative at all.  It’s simply wrong to say they have.

The next aspect of their misleading campaign lies in the statement found on much of their literature: ‘wrong cuts, wrong time’.

Let’s deal with ‘wrong cuts’ first. 

In the tentative deficit reduction plans they’ve put forward so far, Labour need to find £40 billion of spending cuts.  But since losing power in May, Labour have opposed £41 billion of the Government’s spending cuts.  Labour’s run out of road in opposing cuts.  They’re going to have to tell us what their ‘right cuts’ are or they’re just taking Oldham East and Saddleworth’s voters for fools.  When he became leader, Ed Miliband said: 'I won’t oppose every cut the Coalition proposes’.  When’s he going to start keeping his promises?

This brings us onto the argument that this is the ‘wrong time’.  Again, this is completely disingenuous.  Under the deficit reduction plans that Ed Miliband put in Labour’s manifesto last year, the biggest reductions in public spending would come this year – so much for the ‘wrong time’.

Finally, there are Labour's lies on police cuts.  Their literature claims that the Government has ‘slashed Greater Manchester Police’s budget by a staggering 23 per cent’.  This is just not true. Central government funding for the police will be reduced by 20 per cent over four years, and once likely council tax precepts are factored in, the reduction is 14 per cent. We are already saving up to 800,000 hours of police time a year by cutting red tape and our plans to do more will mean that there should be no reduction in the number of police officers on the streets.  As Manchester’s Chief Constable Peter Fahy said when he set out his budget, he will still be able to deliver ‘more resources put into frontline policing and a more efficient and effective service for the people of Greater Manchester’.

The fact that Labour are scaremongering about police budget cuts is compounded by the sheer hypocrisy of their position.  Before the election, Alan Johnson, then Home Secretary and now Shadow Chancellor, refused to guarantee that he would not cut police numbers.

It’s a shame to have to call Labour out on their misleading statements and downright lies.  I would have hoped that Ed Miliband’s promise of a ‘new generation’ would put an end to such scaremongering.  Clearly, that is too much to hope for.

So, please help us hold Labour to account.  Come up to Oldham East and Saddleworth and help out Kashif Ali’s campaign in the final push to the close of polls at 10pm on Thursday, and make Labour pay for their negative, disingenuous campaign.

In order to volunteer to help, please email the campaign or call 07506 028382 or 07939 622561. Click here to download the map of where to find the campaign HQ.