How the Tories made it easy for Labour on OBR announcement

Naturally, the leader’s speech is the most important part of the Labour conference, but the general feeling behind the scenes is that things are going pretty well. Sunday was a bit of a messy day, although strategists think the childcare announcements are still an overall win. But yesterday went extremely well – good speeches from Ed Balls and Chuka Umunna and only a little bit of chuntering from Len McCluskey. And the reason a lot of MPs feel it went particularly well is that the Tories played into their hands on Ed Balls’ announcement on the OBR.

The Shadow Chancellor wasn’t just trying to improve trust in politics, as he claimed yesterday, by calling for the OBR to audit opposition parties’ manifestos. He was also setting up a test for the Tories. Would they accept his offer to submit his plans to scrutiny? Naturally, the Tories said it would be a terrible idea.