David Cameron will today set out six key themes at the heart of the Conservatives’ election manifesto – and already he’s under fire because the NHS and immigration are not among them.
Labour calls the health service omission “staggering” while The Sun – whose support Cameron is banking on if he’s to stay in power in Downing Street – says immigration is such a big issue with the public that “you have to wonder if he really wants to win”.
The six themes Cameron will go with are dealing with the economic deficit, creating jobs, lowering taxes, improving education, tackling housing shortages and helping the retired.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
He will say: “To every mother, father, grandparent, uncle, aunt – I would ask this question. When you look at the children you love, do you want to land them with a legacy of huge debts?”
And he will argue that “the security of your family depends on the stability of our public finances” and suggest that the alternative - more borrowing, more spending – will lead to “economic chaos”.
In short, Cameron is listening to his election guru Lynton Crosby whose mantra is 'economy, economy, economy' and whose advice is that talking about immigration only plays into Ukip’s hands while trying to compete with Labour on NHS funding risks handing victory to Miliband.
Crosby may yet be proved right of course – but The Sun is unimpressed. Under the headline ‘Cam plan sham’, the Murdoch-owned paper reminds Cameron that in a poll conducted before Christmas 49 per cent of voters said immigration was one of the biggest issues facing the country.
It concludes: “If he won’t address the issue of immigration, you have to wonder if he really wants to win.“
Labour’s attack on the NHS omission is led by the opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Leslie who says Labour has a “tough but balanced plan” which is different from the Tories' “extreme and ideological” approach.
As well as making “sensible spending cuts”, Labour would reverse Cameron's “tax cut for millionaires and tackle the cost-of-living crisis. That's the only way to balance the books in a fair way while protecting our NHS."
The first polling reaction to the start of the long election campaign suggests Cameron has work to do.
The ‘Road to Recovery’ poster campaign didn’t get off to an auspicious start when it was reported that the road in the picture was actually German, taken six years near the town of Weimar and heavily Photoshopped for the ad (leaving George Osborne still claiming feebly on Channel 4 News: "It's a British picture, a British road.")
And according to a YouGov poll, a large majority of the electorate do not accept the claim – made by the same poster - that this government has halved the deficit.
Only 24 per cent accepted the claim – against 49 per cent who did not believe it. By contrast, 48 per cent of voters agree with a Labour poster asserting that “the NHS cannot survive five more years of David Cameron”.
