When the Conservative Party recently changed its campaign Twitter profile to make it look like a fact-checking outfit, all it faced was a slap on the wrist from the Electoral Commission and the social-media platform. And its latest move suggests the party was buoyed by that free pass. Because the Tories bought the domain name “labourmanifesto.co.uk” and filled it with claims about Labour’s future plans. Essentially, the site rubbished the opposition party just as Jeremy Corbyn released its highly well-received manifesto.
The plan failed, though, for the same reason as the Tories’ fact-checking site: it was debunked by the public. Clearly, the Conservatives didn’t learn a lesson in humility from their initial attempt to game the internet, just arrogance.
Cost of Corbyn?
On the new website, the Conservatives made the highly misleading claim that:
Hardworking taxpayers would have to pay an extra £2,400 each year in tax on average to cover Jeremy Corbyn’s reckless spending.
A video the party put out claimed the same, telling taxpayers this is the “Cost of Corbyn”:
🔴 *Buzzzzz* Jeremy Corbyn's got a new tax bill for you and your family.
Under Labour taxpayers would have to pay, on average, £2,400 more tax every year.#CostOfCorbynhttps://t.co/z1xTai1Qmr pic.twitter.com/H6lFK9vZ8Z
— Conservatives (@Conservatives) November 21, 2019
But even a cursory glance at Labour’s plans reveals what spin this is. Because the manifesto clearly says:
We’ll ask those who earn more than £80,000 a year to pay a little more income tax, while freezing National Insurance and income tax rates for everyone else.
The party says it can generate £6.4bn from the top 5% through higher income tax. Meanwhile, it has costed that its higher rate of corporation tax will raise an extra £19.4bn. In fact, there are a number of changes to taxes proposed in its manifesto, such as an anti-tax-avoidance programme raising £6.5bn. But these tax changes don’t focus on the UK’s “hardworking taxpayers”; they focus only on those who can afford to pay more tax – high earners, corporations and the like. As the manifesto says:
Labour will rewrite the rules of the economy, so that it works for everyone. We will rebuild our public services, by taxing those at the top to properly fund the services we all rely on.
The UK “can’t afford NOT to have Corbyn”
People were quick to call the Tories out:
So the Tories have created a "Labour Manifesto" website where they claim that under Labour, you'll pay £2,400 a year in tax.
This is a barefaced lie.
Under Labour, only the top 5% of earners will pay a penny more in tax.#CostOfCorbyn #LabourManifesto
— Chris (still a socialist) (@Socialist_Chris) November 21, 2019
For .@Conservatives claim of people having to pay an extra £2,400 a year in tax to be true, you would have to be earning £118,700/year or £9,890/month or £2,282/week
Do you earn that much? Do you know anyone who earns that much?
I don't.#CostOfCorbyn https://t.co/3CLCzwPyL6
— Kazz (@KazzJenkins) November 21, 2019
https://twitter.com/Williamos6/status/1197552881303457792
Well the threat of a redistributive, genuinely radical Labour government for the many is certainly costing someone a few bob.
The Tories have had £5.7m in in political donations in the last week. (Compared with Labour on £218,500 and Libdems on a £275,000)#CostofCorbyn— Real Britain Ros (@realbritainros) November 21, 2019
What is the #CostOfCorbyn? A Fairer Society!
🧒🏾Where Child Poverty is Eradicated
🏡 People have Decent & Affordable homes
👩🏾🎓 Everybody can Access Free Education
🌍 We Tackle the Climate EmergencyThe truth is the Country can't afford NOT to have Corbyn#WantChangeVoteLabour 🌹
— Labour's Black PLP (@LaboursBlackPLP) November 21, 2019
Cost of the Tories
Before the Conservatives even had a chance to pat their own backs over the domain-name skullduggery, meanwhile, the ‘Cost of Corbyn’ had morphed into the ‘Cost of Tories’ and ‘Cost of Tory Rule’ too:
#CostOfCorbyn is a major boost to our economy as people have more money to spend on goods and services, pushing growth and employment.#CostofTories is just missing out on a recession last quarter and dropping from 5th to 7th richest country.#CostofTories is how many dead?
— WhiteRose #PoliticallyEvicted (@ysbryd1) November 21, 2019
#CostOfToryRule
Peoples lives.
Peoples dignity.
Children without food and shelter
Veterans thrown on to the streets.
We have to get them out#VoteLabour— Jen Wood – est optimum simpliciter (@unojen_wood) November 21, 2019
https://twitter.com/wendyampodd/status/1197506811118661632
The catastrophic #costofTories Universal Credit, thousands of deaths due to PIP fit for work, food banks, child poverty, cuts to CAMHS, declining NHS, cuts in social care, closures of Sure Start Centres, increasing homelessness. Tax cuts for Rich Mates
— Lady Debs 👑👒🍸🍾 (@DebsL64) November 21, 2019
Underhand Tory tactics fail again
In short, the Conservatives are continuing to use the internet in underhand ways to try and pull the wool over the public’s eyes. But bullshit doesn’t hang around on social media for too long before people call it out, exposing its disseminators as the untrustworthy goons they are. For now, it appears that’s an understanding beyond the Tories’ grasp.
Featured image via ITV News and Guardian News
