Gordon Brown misled the Commons yesterday after lifting unreliable material from a Left-wing blog

At yesterday's Prime Minister's Questions, Gordon Brown alleged that David Cameron had replied to the question "Are you committed to educational maintenance allowances?" at a public meeting by saying "Let's just say I'm not uncommitted to it".

There was much excitement at the Left Foot Forward blog during PMQs that Brown had lifted the quote directly from a piece on the site by guest writer James Mills.

However, later in the day the site had to admit that:

"In light of a video made available to Left Foot Forward, we accept that this is not the form of words that Cameron used at the event and have amended the story accordingly."

Will Gordon Brown follow that with a similar apology for misleading the House at next week's PMQs?

For the record, the Conservative position remains that there are no plans to scrap EMAs, as Michael Gove told the Guardian last autumn, for example.

4.45pm Update:

Iain Dale points to this exchange on the floor of the House of Commons as an even more unequivocal statement of the Conservative position on EMA:

Dawn Butler (Lab): Is the hon. Gentleman in favour of the education maintenance allowance?

Michael Gove: Yes, absolutely

Jonathan Isaby

Exposing the lies in Labour's claims about Conservative spending pledges

Scroll down for the update with the official Conservative rebuttal of Labour's claims

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Alistair Darling today published a Labour Party document suggesting that there was a £34 billion "black hole" in Conservative spending plans, claiming to have assessed the cost of all Conservative policies.

I'm not sure who would want to take lessons in Maths from this Government given the parlous state of the country's finances, and needless to say, the claims are already being disputed - and not just by Conservative politicians.

The Spectator's James Forysth says that the Tories have branded it "a 'dodgy dossier' full of lies" and highlights several untruths on which it is based:

"The document says the Tories would let married couples transfer their tax allowances, when they haven’t committed to that.

"It also claims that the Tories are pledged to abolishing the 50p rate before the end of the parliament which the Tories are not." 

The Times's Sam Coates also picks up on the supposed 50p rate abolition, which Labour claimed accounts for £2.4 billion of the "black hole", and adds:

"The document also suggests that the Tories have committed themselves to avoiding the 1p increase in National Insurance, which would cost £7.17 billion in 2014/15 - which they have not. George Osborne has made it clear he really wants to promise this - but he will not do so until specific savings have been identified to pay for it.

"Secondly, you cannot necessarily trust the Treasury costings - not because the Treasury get it wrong, but because the assumptions they are directed to use may not mirror the same assumptions as the Tories."

I'll add more details as and when they emerge.

2pm update:

 Andrew Lilico, Chief Economist at Policy Exchange, offers these thoughts: