Poll: voters still swung by Liam Byrne’s ‘no money’ note

After thirteen years in office, the Conservatives face an uphill battle to keep their seats come the next election. But don’t despair true blue Tories, for the new party chairman Greg Hands has a cunning plan: endlessly tweeting out pictures of that infamous Liam Byrne note. The 2010 letter by the then Labour minister in which Byrne joked that ‘I’m afraid there is no money!’ has been resurrected by Hands in an audacious bid to paint Labour as the party of fiscal mismanagement.

Whether it’s doubling as a Pret serviette or a giant novelty placard, Hands has been photoshopping and firing off copies of the letter at every opportunity. Pity the poor printers of CCHQ. The Chelsea MP’s opportunism even extended to using the launch of the national alert at 3 p.m on Sunday to share yet another image of Byrne’s letter.

But might there be a method in his madness? Mr S has got his hands on some polling which suggests that Greg Hands’ constant reminders of the note might have some cut-through with voters.