Having squandered an eight-point lead in just two months, it looks like Boris Johnson’s despairing campaign chief Lynton Crosby is resorting to outright lies about their opponents. An email sent out to supporters this morning claims that Ken Livingstone’s running mate would raise council tax:
“Ken Livingstone’s hand picked Deputy Mayoral running mate in the Assembly is leading the Labour charge against the freeze, instead promoting an increase in council tax.”
The Boris campaign have told Scrapbook the source for this claim is a Labour press release. But the footnote used merely compares the cost of a hypothetical 1% increase in council tax with the non-hypothetical costs of Boris’ transport fare hikes.
As Lynton Crosby is undoubtedly aware, Labour have supported Boris’s council tax freeze at every budget debate for four consecutive years. The first line of Labour’s alternative budget, to be released later today, reads:
“As in previous years we continue to support the Greater London Authority precept freeze.”
These fibs are surely a sign of a chaotic campaign growing in desperation.
2 Comments
I gather that Boris is so confident he has been adopted as the Tory candidate in Reigate in the footprints of that other populist Tory MP George Gardiner. Bad news for Cameron and Osborne.
I wonder if L Crosby has the correct work permit to be working in the UK…