The Conservative party have kicked off the 2015 election campaign by launching a poster on the economy. The poster claims that under the Conservative-led government there are 1.75m more people are employed since the 2010 general election. That figure is true, it doesn't say that some of the jobs a part time or zero hours, but the figure is true. The second claim is that 760.000 new businesses have been created, again this claim is true according to independent statistics, so far so good...
...The third claim is that they have "halved" the deficit. This is untrue, the deficit the Coalition inherited was £156bn the current deficit is £91bn according to the Independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). Half of 156 is 78 so they are £13bn from halving the deficit.
Conservative sources say it has been halved as a percentage of GDP but that is not what the poster says. On the first day of the election campaign, if they can't tell the whole truth now what will they be like in May?
