Conservatives revive Reagan slogan to ask voters if are better off under Labour

By Andrew Porter, Political Editor Published: 10:00PM GMT twenty-three February 2010

George Osborne will seize on interpretation that shows Britons are worse off than when they last went to the polls as piece of what he hopes will be a clinching evidence with floating voters.

It comes in a debate in that the shade chancellor will guarantee to put the jot down debt built up underneath Gordon Brown at the centre of the Conservative choosing campaign.

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He will discuss it a City audience: "Labours 2005 declaration betrothed increasing prosperity. That is the greatest damaged guarantee of all. Even by the dim days of the 1970s and the recessions of the early 1980s and 1990s the expansion of GDP per capita was postulated in each full Parliament.

"This shows that the debt-fuelled indication of expansion that Gordon Brown pursued for the past decade is essentially broken."

The Conservatives explain that for the initial time in complicated British domestic history, inhabitant income per chairman will have depressed over a full Parliament.

Their investigate shows that Britain right away produces �281 less per chairman in genuine conditions than at the last election. The usually alternative time outlay per chairman has depressed over a council was during the ephemeral 1974 Labour parliament, Mr Osborne will say.

The council with the top enlarge in GDP per capita was the one led by John Major between1992-1997.

Labours 2005 choosing declaration betrothed increasing prosperity, not behind to bang and bust. That guarantee is "in tatters" Mr Osborne will discuss it the City audience.

He will make make use of of the Mais harangue at the Cass Business School to say: "When people ask the important subject are you improved off than you were five years ago? Gordon Brown is the initial Prime Minister in complicated British story who has to answer no.

"Gordon Browns debt is the singular greatest hazard to the mercantile future. We need a new mercantile indication built on saving and investment."

In the 1980 United States presidential campaign, President Reagan, the challenger to Jimmy Carter, asked citizens what was seen as a harmful question: "Are you improved off right away than you were 4 years ago? If so, I inspire you to opinion for my opponent. If not, I urge you to opinion for me."

The Prime Minister believes his mercantile jot down in bureau and his doing of the monetary predicament will be compared agreeably to the "novice" Conservative group on suggest to the electorate. He will make make use of of the choosing to explain that David Cameron and Mr Osborne would deliver policies that would bluster the capricious recovery.

But Mr Osborne is austere that Labours debt and "Gordon Browns mercantile record" from his time as Chancellor as well as at Number 10 at the heart of the Tory choosing campaign.

The shade chancellor will contend that usually a new government, led by David Cameron, will lead to a "new mercantile indication built on saving and investment."