It must count as some achievement to simultaneously attract the ire of Jack Straw and Simon Heffer. That’s the position in which David Cameron finds himself this morning, with both, to varying degrees, accusing the Tory leader of attempting to buy the election.
Here’s Straw:
At the same time that Mr Cameron tells the British people we face “austerity”, he has ordered his party to fight the most expensive election campaign in British political history. It is an American-style campaign, costing millions, with wealthy suitors each paying £50,000 to join David Cameron’s dining club, and British high streets covered with billboards bankrolled ultimately from Belize. Mr Cameron says the Conservatives have changed, but what we are seeing is an attempt by his party to buy the next general election.
And here’s the Heff:
I am told that the budget for the forthcoming campaign has been agreed, and it will be £18m. How does that resonate with a country in the grip of austerity? What does it suggest about the party’s understanding of the value of money? What if a second campaign had to be funded later in 2010? Given the circumstances, would a little more restraint not have been in order? Given, also, the very obvious mess that the government has made of the country, is it really going to take £18m to put that message across?
Should the Tories have amassed an £18m election war chest, it will be the most expensive campaign this country has seen. But not by much. At the 2005 election Labour spent a record £17,939,617 — £87,000 more than the Tories’ £17,852,240.
If Labour is to criticise Cameron with any credibility, it will have to run a fairly lean campaign itself. Given the state of the party’s finances, it may be forced to do so.
Whether this line of attack will prove effective either way is doubtful. Next to the £850bn bank bailout and the £187bn deficit, £18m will appear a piffling sum to the voters. Attacking the size of the Tories’ campaign budget may even prove a distraction from the related but separate issue of Lord Ashcroft’s tax status.
In order to portray the Tory showing as insensitive and profligate, Gordon Brown would have to run a John Major-style soapbox campaign. Such an approach would complement Brown’s hairshirt image and could even give Labour a chance to resurrect the effective slogan “Not flash, just Gordon”. I’d be surprised if Labour strategists weren’t considering this approach for the election.
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