Labour's manifesto leak plunges party into civil war

Manifesto leak: Jeremy Corbyn and media adviser Seumas Milne
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Jeremy Corbyn's leadership was pitched into a Labour civil war after the leaking of his manifesto, dubbed by experts the “most expensive suicide note in history”.

In an extraordinary day of recriminations, allies of the Labour leader blamed officials in the party’s own headquarters for a leak they described as “malicious”.

Senior colleagues of Mr Corbyn described the moment when his office was informed last night that the entire contents of their secret election offer to the British people had been handed to two newspapers. One said: “There was absolute consternation. People were astonished and baffled that it could have happened.”

They described how Seumas Milne, Mr Corbyn’s media adviser, was called out of a policy meeting at around 7.30pm to be given the news. He returned to tell the gathering: “Can we stop the conversation for a moment? The manifesto has been leaked.”

The leaked 43-page draft revealed plans for the most Left-wing manifesto since Michael Foot’s in 1983, with plans for nationalisation of railways, the Royal Mail and some energy giants.

However, counter-briefings alleged that Mr Corbyn’s own inner circle had deliberately leaked the manifesto themselves.

One theory being pushed was that the Corbynites acted to pre-empt a major meeting this afternoon with trade unions, shadow cabinet members and party representatives where some of the bold plans could be watered down.

A party source said: “They’re showing the membership what Corbyn could do if only the rest of the party was behind him.

“Then when a watered-down version comes out of the NEC process, they’ll say the Blairites in Labour headquarters sabotaged it.”

A candidate said: “This is absolute madness. It wasn’t even due to be released to MPs on the Clause 5 committee until this morning, so it had to come straight from source.”

But a shadow minister loyal to Corbyn told the Evening Standard that the leak appeared to have happened just after the draft manifesto was sent from the leader’s offices to be printed by an in-house team.

Neither side was suggesting the leak was accidental. But it was reported that a Corbyn aide had left a copy of the document on his desk in an open plan office where other officials might have seen it.

In a flash analysis of the leaked document, the Institute of Economic Affairs identified up to £40 billion a year of extra spending on the NHS, social care, education, public sector pay, police, tuition fees, pensions and other areas. This could easily double once expenditure on infrastructure is included.

IEA chief economist Julian Jessop said it would be the biggest planned increase in spending in peacetime. He also identified £30 billion of tax increases including from raising income tax on higher earners, corporation tax, capital gains tax, inheritance tax and the bank levy.

However, he believes Labour may struggle to raise such sums if the economy slows down under the sweeping reforms given the negative impact that many of them risk having on investment and jobs.

Mark Littlewood, director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, said: “Millions of voters may well see this as the most expensive suicide note in history — even if many in Jeremy Corbyn’s inner circle are more focused on a Labour revolution”

Professor Tony Travers, of the government department at the London School of Economics, said: “Inevitably people will speak about longest suicide notes. This may be judged also to be the most expensive one.

“The apparent cost of the total of all the commitments would place an implausible burden on a very small group of taxpayers — many of whom are the best able to move their job or avoid at least part of the burden.”

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