Consumer champion Martin Lewis pushed Cabinet minister Claire Coutinho to apologise live on TV over the Tories claim of a £2,000 tax hike on households if Labour wins the election.
The Money Saving Expert challenged the Energy Security Secretary about the tax allegation when she appeared on ITV’s Good Morning Britain.
Independent fact checkers also disputed the Conservative claims.
In the first TV debate on Tuesday night, Rishi Sunak repeatedly accused Sir Keir Starmer of having an economic plan which would mean households in Britain would see their tax bills rise by £2,000.
Only after being probed repeatedly about this claim did the Labour leader eventually dismiss it as “absolute garbage”.
The figures for this alleged £38 billion tax hit on the country were, at least partially, based on calculations done by civil servants at the Treasury, though reportedly at the request of Tory special advisers.
Labour has dismissed the Tories’ publication on its tax plans as a “lie,” saying it includes policies which it is not planning to bring in, or not on the scale proposed.
Labour this morning put out a letter, sent from the Treasury’s top civil servant James Bowler to Darren Jones, the shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, about the Tories’ claims about Labour’s tax plans.
In it, Mr Bowler said, replying to Mr Jones: “In your letter you highlight that the £38bn figure used in the Conservative Party’s publication includes costs beyond those provided by the Civil Service and published online by HM Treasury.
“I agree that any costings derived from other sources or produced by other organisations should not be presented as having been produced by the Civil Service.
“I have reminded ministers and advisers that this should be the case.”
He added that civil servants were not involved in the calculation of the £38 billion total figure being claimed by the Tories as being the bill for Labour’s tax plans.
Mr Lewis quizzed Ms Coutinho about this letter which emerged on Wednesday morning.
He said: “That is a slap down from the Permanent Secretary to the Treasury.
“You have been on television elsewhere this morning defending this, and saying these are Civil Service numbers and that they were not by political advisers, is it time to apologise?”
She responded: “No absolutely not.
“What the letter says is that you can look on gov.uk and costings are done by Government departments, the Treasury, and those are official costings.”
But Mr Lewis intervened: “The letter said the figure being used should not have been used and said it came from the Civil Service.
“That is what the letter said, I’ve got it in black and white in front of me.”
But Mr Coutinho responded: “People can look online. There is an official document on gov.uk which has been costed by Treasury officials which the letter confirms.
“And as I can say as someone who used to work in the Treasury, Treasury officials do not sign off dodgy numbers. They are very smart people, they are independent, impartial civil servants.”
Shadow minister Jonathan Ashworth slammed Mr Sunak’s claims about Labour’s tax plans.
“He lied about Labour’s tax plans,” he told Sky News.
“What he said last night about Labour’s tax plans is categorically untrue.”
In the TV debate, Mr Sunak and Sir Keir also clashed over the NHS, immigration, and education.
