Labour say Clegg's Durham police pledge was election 'gaffe'

It's official, we're on the run-in to an election. We've had the first mention of the word "gaffe".

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg stands accused of dropping a clanger in Durham.

He was there to trumpet his party's plans to put more police on the streets.

It all sounded good, the party would provide 3,000 more officers nationally, 200 across the North East and Cumbria.

And Durham seemed the ideal place to announce it.

According to Lib Dem figures the force has lost 193 officers since 2005.

And the city is an electoral target for their candidate Carol Woods.

There was one hitch. It was the way the Lib Dems would pay for these extra officers.

Again, it sounded good - scrap the remnants of Labour's ID card scheme, and use the savings to pay for those police.

Unfortunately Labour leapt on that. They joyfully pointed out that some of the people paid to administer the ID scheme the Lib Dems were scrapping are based at the Passport Office in Durham.

So an announcement made in Durham would cost jobs in Durham, according to Labour.

Something they say "Calamity Clegg" hadn't worked out.

Of course, although it's true that hundreds of people are employed in the Passport Office in Durham, I have no idea how many jobs would be under threat in that eventuality.

I'm not sure Labour know either, but it did allow them to puncture the Lib Dem bubble to at least some extent.

There are plenty more battles to come though before election day!

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