Conservatives challenged over "hypothetical" spending

7.45.00pm GMT Wed 18th Nov 2009

Lib Dem Parliamentary Spokesman for Newcastle East Greg Stone has attacked his Conservative opponent in a row over spending proposals to tackle youth unemployment. Despite being asked to withdraw inaccurate comments he has attributed to Greg, the Conservative candidate has failed to do so, raising questions over his integrity.

Greg said "I have rebutted the Conservative's attack by producing fully costed figures identifying how the Lib Dem policy on addressing youth unemployment will be delivered. Unfortunately for him, the Conservatives' policy document "Get Britain Working" appears to have a number of massive holes in its arithmetic.

I challenge him to confirm that his own party's proposals for tackling unemployment are based on a "hypothetical" saving of £600 million that has not yet been found, and that the whole is unfunded beyond March 2013. His spending commitment to deliver a technical school for the North East also appears to be "hypothetical", as it is specifically not included in his allegedly "fully funded" policy.

If this is indeed the case, his attack on me is hypocritical, and his claim to advocate "fully funded" proposals is already in tatters."