Express & Star

Giles gets the run-down on Labour's health and safety policy

Amid all the frothed-up fuss about the leak of the Labour manifesto four days early, the real story has been missed.

Published

It is this. What does the draft manifesto have to say about health and safety?

As Jeremy Corbyn arrived for a party meeting in London yesterday, the car carrying the Labour leader ran over the foot of BBC cameraman Giles Wooltorton, who was afterwards packed off in an ambulance to hospital.

This raises a number of questions. Who was to blame? What is Labour policy when it comes to running over BBC cameramen? Was the cameraman trying to trip up the car? And (this one will be coming from Giles' News Editor) did he get the picture?

As the big inquiry begins, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, is in the clear.

When he was doorstepped by a BBC film crew to talk about the leaked document, he had no car available. Instead, he explained, he had to dash off to catch his bus. He chatted politely if rather breathlessly as he did so.

The cameras did not follow him all the way to the bus, so we didn't get to see its colour. Red, probably.

The leak of the draft Labour manifesto sent the Westminster politico-journo bubble into near meltdown.

Laura at the Beeb even suggested that if they can't organise the launch of their manifesto properly, how can Labour convince us it can run the country?

But come on. If the parties have not been talking about their policies during the campaign up to now, why have they bothered to say anything at all?

And it's only a manifesto. Who takes any notice of them? They are full of promises and wishes and lots of other stuff to bang on about during the general election campaign. But if and when a party comes to power, what is in them is forgotten surprisingly quickly.

For instance, when Philip Hammond tried to raise National Insurance contributions for the self employed in his last Budget, it was down to Laura from the Beeb to point out that this was in direct contradiction to what was in the Tory manifesto at the 2015 general election.

Mr Hammond and his team appeared to have forgotten all about the pledge.

The only really interesting part of the story is the idea that the person who leaked it may be a traitor or fifth columnist of some sort at the heart of the Labour team.

Somebody who does not have full confidence in the leadership of Mr Corbyn. Virtually all the Parliamentary Labour Party then.

But certainly not Margaret Beckett. Asked if she had leaked it, she said: "Don't be ridiculous, I haven't seen the bloody thing."