The Sunday Telegraph and Sunday Times newspapers quoted Conservative finance minister Sajid Javid as calling Labour's spending plans "truly frightening" that would push Britain close to bankruptcy. However, Labour's would-be finance minister, John McDonnell, dismissed the Conservative estimates as "ludicrous" and a "mish-mash of debunked estimates and bad maths". Britain's top civil servant barred the finance ministry from publishing a costing of Labour's policies last week, saying it would breach political impartiality rules. The Conservatives currently enjoy a sizeable lead in opinion polls over Labour at the start of the campaigning for December's election, which Johnson called early in a bid to break the parliamentary impasse over Brexit. Separate polls for the Mail on Sunday and Observer newspapers both put the Conservatives on 41% and Labour on 29%, while a Sunday Times poll put the Conservatives on 39% and Labour on 26%.

Source: bd News24 November 10, 2019 05:34 UTC