Starmer was correct to hit Sunak's tax claims hard

To promote their misleading claim Labour would increase taxes on working households by £2,000, the Conservatives issued a video of a flying red piggy bank and the message: "If you think Labour will win, start saving..."

- ANDREW GRICE

Labour replied with an ad showing Rishi Sunak with a blue piggy bank, saying he “just can’t stop telling porkies”. Labour added that Sunak “lied about NHS waiting lists. Lied about the cost of living. Lied about small boats. What else is he lying about?”

Crucially, Labour made Sunak’s claim in Tuesday’s ITV debate a question of his character and ran another video showing pictures of lockdown parties in Downing Street. “They lied to you then. He’s lying to you now,” it said. I think the Labour counterattack is more powerful than the Tories’ original claim, which has been further undermined by criticism from the Treasury’s top civil servant and the independent Office for Statistics Regulation.

Although many voters assume politicians lie (as the "Bliar" posters after the Iraq war showed), it is unusual for politicians to accuse each other of doing it. True, Jeremy Hunt did so last month when he hit back at Labour’s claim that Tory plans to eventually abolish national insurance would put the state pension at risk.