The Economics Editor of The Telegraph, Edmund Conway, said:
“…Cameron is simply wrong: the public finances do not look any worse than under Labour. Ironically, the Tories actually had sight of some of these private calculations a year or so ago and leaked them to the press, so even if Cameron is merely neglecting to read the papers, he surely cannot claim that he had no inkling of what he was facing.”

Even right wing journalist Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, couldn’t back the Tory claim, saying:
“So when Mr Osborne declared yesterday that “it’s worse than we thought” he had precious little to point to. The so-called structural deficit (the amount of overspend that will not be eliminated by an economic recovery) is a little bigger than had been estimated. But crucially, Mr Osborne’s election goal – to abolish “the bulk” of the structural deficit by 2014 – would have been easily achieved had Mr Darling remained in place. No more taxes need to be raised, or budgets cut, to honour this Tory manifesto pledge.”

Faisal Islam, Channel 4 News’s award winning economics correspondent, said: “So overall, the chancellor has not got the mandate for radical further action he would have ideally liked from this report.

“Of course it does illuminate that Alistair Darling had already pencilled in £44bn of cuts before the election, but the new chancellor cannot credibly blame his decision to accelerate this on a ’shock’ in today’s report.

“Next week’s epic budget will see additional cuts or tax rises made out of political choice rather than through objective economic necessity.”

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Mr Cameron said the independent OBR would “show the scale of the problem we are in today” and accused the Treasury under Labour of sanctioning “scandalous” waste by publishing growth forecasts that were “far more optimistic than independent forecasters”.

Mr Darling said: “If it turns out that borrowing is lower than I thought then that puts a completely different complexion on things because what he has been doing is exaggerating the scale of the difficulties we face in order to justify the things he has wanted to do anyway.”

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A Tory minister came under fire last night for saying those in the ‘greatest need’ would have to bear the brunt of Britain’s attempts to pay off the budget deficit.

Unveiling a £1.2billion package of cuts to councils, Local Government minister Bob Neill suggested the poorest areas would suffer the most.

Asked why northern cities were losing millions more than southern areas, Mr Neill said: “Those in greatest need ultimately bear the burden of paying off the debt.”

His comments contrast with the Government’s slogan that ‘We’re all in this together’ in tackling the deficit.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg have also repeatedly stated that public spending cuts will not be targeted on the poor.

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“The decision will cost families earning less than £307 a week about £600 a year, equivalent to a penny rise in their income tax for each child.

Mr Gove said that he had to make the savings to protect the overall schools budget. But his move was criticised by poverty campaigners who said that it raised questions about the Government’s commitment to reducing child poverty and protecting the poorest from cuts.

Children whose parents are on Income Support or Jobseeker’s Allowance will continue to be eligible.”

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“The source, who spoke out under condition of anonymity, said high ranking officers in Harrow Council were too afraid of repercussions to give constructive criticism of Conservative policies.

There were also claims political influence was exercised over a programme of redundancies launched to balance the authority’s tight budget, leaving officials scared that speaking out of turn would cost them their jobs.

In an exclusive interview with the Harrow Times, the source said: “There are a number of projects that have been railroaded through by the Conservative administration. They have developed, over a period of time, a culture of fear. Senior staff, middle managers, have been dictated to and honest and justifiable advice has been ignored.”

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Gordon Brown may have resigned today but record numbers of people refused to resign themselves to the new Conservative/Lib Dem government without a fight, as record numbers joined the Labour Party.

Over a thousand people had already joined Labour before Gordon resigned, but afterwards the already record number of new members INCREASED to 20 a minute – more than Labour’s website could cope with.

Eager not to put potential new members off, the join page was replaced when it became overloaded by the message “a record number of people are currently trying to join! Please try again in 5 minutes.”

Whether you feel let down by the Lib Dems or are eager to join the fight against what promises to be a government determined to cut services and throw thousands on the dole, please keep trying to join Labour online.

David Cameron has been accused of being “completely dishonest” about his links to a controversial Conservative party affiliate whose leadership has described the NHS as the biggest waste of money in the UK and suggested that the waterboarding of prisoners can be justified.

In an interview prior to the election campaign, the Tory leader denied all knowledge of the Young Britons’ Foundation, which has been dubbed “the Conservative madrasa” because of its radical views and role in training young party activists, including some parliamentary candidates.

Asked about his links to the group last month, Cameron said: “I don’t know anything about the Young Britons’ Foundation.”

But Cameron had already contributed to a YBF-branded guide to essential reading for young Conservatives, according to the YBF’s chief executive, Donal Blaney, a Kent-based solicitor. The Guardian has also obtained photographs of him meeting the organisation’s director of strategy, vice-president, and then operations director before he denied knowledge of the group. Its director of research, Alex Deane, was formerly Cameron’s chief of staff.

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Cameron first delayed an interview with Channel 4 News, then recently cancelled it altogether, leading Krishnan Guru-Murthy to say: “David Cameron has refused to do an election campaign interview for Channel 4 News. First time anyone can remember this happening.” Adding, “The Conservatives cancelled last week, then again this week. Now they say he doesn’t have time. So no DC v Jon Snow”.

Cameron has also pulled out of a Radio 5 Live Leaders’ interview today.

Meanwhile, Gordon Brown has already given interviews to Adam Boulton (Sky News); Lucy Manning (ITV News); Nick Robinson (BBC News); Nicky Campbell (Radio 5 Live) and Cathy Newman (Channel 4 News) – all before 2 o’clock today.

Alistair Campbell provides an explanation for Cameron’s reluctance, writing: “If there are any Labour supporters who know undecided voters out there, get onto BBC iplayer and sit down and let them hear David Cameron on the PM programme last night [18 mins in], or Michael Gove on the Today programme this morning. These people could be running the country by the day after tomorrow. They have had four years to think through answers to straight-forward questions. This was a double car crash, live on radio.”

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One of the features of this election is that whilst the broadcast media has mostly concentrated on personalities and ‘the state of the race’ discussions, ordinary people have been using the Web to fill the gap in increasing numbers.

Labour has enjoyed unprecedented viewing figures for some of its’ YouTube and Facebook videos, and the manifesto was downloaded by tens of thousands of voters. Even Gordon Brown’s speech yesterday afternoon is set to be seen by over 50,000 in within 24 hours of being published online.

A clever video set to the tune of Pulp’s Common People has been viewed almost 350,000 times since the election started, and now illustrator Shaun Askew hopes to join the list of videos spreading from person to person and website after website, with his version of the Cameron Rap 2010.

Shaun, who created the animation for the film, told Labour Matters what motivated him to make the film:

“I keep waking up at night in a cold sweat, gripped with fear that we will have a Cameron-led government and George Osborne in charge of the financial purse strings!”

Watch Cameron Rap 2010 on YouTube.

His Mother has told the Leicester Mercury that she’s “distraught” about her son’s claims, saying: “He needs some support mentally. He hasn’t been balanced for some time.” Adding that: “He hasn’t really ever came out of grieving for his father Paul, who died suddenly in 1996, and I think he has a lot of anger inside him. He has problems, but I didn’t want them to come out this way.”

Meanwhile in the Lynn News, David Collis, Chair of North West Norfolk Constituency Labour Party, said:

“Manish Sood does not represent the views of North West Norfolk Labour Party, and we are furious at his stupid and ridiculous comments.

“This is the final in a series of ridiculous comments which he has made over a period of time and local Labour supporters in North West Norfolk want to make it clear that local members do not share his view.”

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