Battle for economic credibility

Labour’s efforts this morning are all about presenting themselves as the credible party on economics.

Credibility is something that an be notably lacking in an election when all parties optimise bonanza offerings that may have no basis in reality come May.

The party has said that the front page of the manifesto, released in two hours at an 11am press conference in Manchester will be a commitment. To a “Budget Responsibility Lock.”

Miliband says that this means every policy in the Manifesto will be fully costed and paid for without additional borrowing.

This is Miliband’s attempt to end the common theme of other elections with the Conservatives able to attack any Labour promise as wild, unfunded and irresponsible spending.

It is part of Miliband’s determination to make economic credibility, one of his party’s weaker areas in the face of repeated conservative attacks that it was a Labour government before 2010 that “crashed the economy”.

Labour think it will give them the upper hand able to fight on a strong platform of funded cuts and attack the Conservatives for not providing the same detail and for any freebies (like three days volunteering a year) that they may offer in the coming weeks.

Labour also think that this plays well when the Conservatives publicly offer large unfunded depending commitments, and no doubt enjoyed the reluctance of chancellor George Osborne this weekend to explain where £8 billion of additional funding for the NHS funding will come from – despite being asked multiple times on air on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday.

However it also gives Labour vulnerability – many of its core members and indeed the party’s own MPs out on the door step will want to be able to offer something really solid on the NHS – the most important issue in this election – and a costed £2.5 billion may pale into insignificance next to £8 billion the Conservatives talk about – funded or not.