The top Treasury civil servant has said the Conservatives’ assessment of Labour’s tax plans “should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service”.
In a letter to the Labour Party two days ago, seen by the BBC, Treasury permanent secretary James Bowler said the calculation of £38bn of uncosted spending used by the Tories “includes costs beyond those provided by the civil service”.
The letter risks undermining Rishi Sunak’s claim in Tuesday evening’s head-to-head debate that Labour’s plans would mean £2,000 of tax rises per working household.
Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves accused the prime minister of lying.
“Labour has no plans to increase taxes on working people,” she said, reiterating that the party has ruled out increasing the rate of income tax, National Insurance and VAT.
During the debate itself, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer dismissed the figures as “absolute garbage”.
Defending the claim, Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho told the BBC the figures were “official costings from the Treasury”, based on policies set out in Labour documents and signed off by the permanent secretary.
However, in a letter to Labour’s Darren Jones, Mr Bowler wrote: “As you will expect, civil servants were not involved in the production or presentation of the Conservative Party’s document ‘Labour’s Tax Rises’ or in the calculation of the total figure used … the £38bn figure used in the Conservative Party’s publication includes costs beyond those provided by the civil service.”
Mr Bowler added that he had reminded ministers and advisers that “any costings derived from other sources or produced by other organisations should not be presented as having been produced by the civil service”.
A Conservative Party spokesperson said: “We were fair to Labour in the production of the Labour tax rise briefing note and used only clear Labour policies, their own costings or official HMT [HM Treasury] costings using the lowest assumptions.”
Earlier Ms Coutinho told BBC Breakfast that if anything the Tory claim was “an underestimate”.
“These are brilliant independent civil servants and they would not be putting anything dodgy in there,” she said.
Former head of the civil service Lord O’Donnell wrote on X: “Getting civil servants to cost opposition polices in run up to election needs to stop. In past both parties have done it.
“It is an unsavoury practice as assumptions provided by special advisers are biased to make party political scoring points.”
