More Lies from Labour – Sure Start Fact Checked

Yet more lies from the dishonest and corrupt Labour party are exposed by Cathy Newman.

The claim
“The Tories have said they would cut £200m each year from the Sure Start budget – which could see one in five children’s centres being forced to close.”
Labour Party press release, 16 March 2010

Cathy Newman checks it out
In its headlong pursuit of the women’s vote, Labour has repeatedly claimed that the Conservatives would cut £200m a year from the Sure Start budget. This has been a widely-quoted figure, uttered with such confidence that it’s started to acquire the ring of truth.

The Tories deny it, yet still Labour repeat it. It’s one of those ding-dongs that will become the soundtrack of the election campaign. But who’s right? Time to call in the FactCheck team.

Over to the team for the analysis
Labour claims the Tories would slash £200m a year from Sure Start – a fifth of its total budget. This isn’t a one-off claim; the party included it in a chunky dossier on Tory policies released earlier this year and Gordon Brown has raised it in parliament.

The origin of the claim goes back to a March 2008 Tory policy document which says the Conservatives will hire 4,200 new health visitors – funded from “£200m per year, with which the government are intending to pay for a new cadre of ‘outreach’ workers from children’s centres”.

The Tories said they would prefer to spend the money on qualified health visitors rather than outreach workers. So is it a straight reprioritisation of funds, rather than a cut?

Cathy Newman’s verdict
Most of the £200m is not, as Labour claims, coming from cuts to Sure Start, but from the health budget. So the inflammatory headline on Labour’s scare story is, strictly, wrong.

But it may be there’s no smoke without fire. The Tories have not promised to protect Sure Start from the swingeing budget cuts we know are coming across the board, and they won’t commit to keeping all 3,500 centres open.

A senior Conservative source told me the party did want to get “better value for money” from the service. That may well be code for cuts in the future – but Labour is misleading voters by seizing on a specific figure.

So yet again from Labour we see the half-truths and lies exposed.

The FactCheck Blog – Will Sure Start face £200m cuts?.