Rishi Sunak "lied and lied deliberately" to the public during the ITV leaders' debate, Sir Keir Starmer has said.
The Labour leader added that the Prime Minister's claim Labour would hike taxes by £2,000 may also have broken the ministerial code.
Nevertheless, the Tories are standing by the figure.
READ MORE: Rishi Sunak a 'liar' says Labour
During Tuesday’s televised head-to-head Mr Sunak repeatedly claimed “independent Treasury officials” had costed Sir Keir Starmer's policies.
He told viewers that they amounted to "a £2,000 tax rise for everyone”.
The party later said this was based on a Treasury document estimating the cost attached to potential Labour policies.
It claimed that the difference between the money that Sir Keir's party would raise from its policies and the amount it would spend would be a deficit of £38.5 billion over four years.
This, they said, amounted to around £2,094 for every working household.
However, on Wednesday morning it emerged that the Treasury’s permanent secretary James Bowler said ministers had been told not to suggest civil servants produced the figure, as officials were using assumptions provided by politically appointed special advisers.
The Office for Statistics Regulation confirmed it was looking into the use of the £2,000 figure.
Sir Keir said: “What you saw last night was a Prime Minister with his back against the wall, desperately trying to defend 14 years of failure, resorting – and it was a flash of his character, an insight into his character – to lies. I don’t say that lightly.”
He told LBC: “He breached the ministerial code because he lied and he lied deliberately.
“Because we have made clear that our plans are fully costed, fully funded, they do not involve tax rises for working people – so that’s no income tax rise, no national insurance rise, no VAT rise.
“And the Prime Minister, with his back against the wall, desperately trying to defend his awful record in office, resorted to lies and he knew what he was doing, he knew very well what he was doing.”
READ MORE: Brian Wilson: Here's what's cutting through in the General Election
During a campaign stop in West Lothian, Douglas Ross defended the Prime Minister.
Asked by the PA news agency if he stood by the claim, he said: “Yes, Labour will put up people’s taxes and it’s not just the Prime Minister saying that, Keir Starmer didn’t refute it.
“He didn’t come back during the debate and say they wouldn’t.”
When it was put to him that Labour are strongly disputing the claim, Mr Ross said: “It’s interesting he didn’t do it during the debate.
“If he can’t be agile during a debate and refute it at the time, that tells you the story.
“That tells you that Labour will put up taxes on hardworking people here in Scotland and across the UK.
“In contrast, you’ve got the Conservatives reducing taxes.”
It was a slightly subdued day on the campaign. Mr Sunak, Sir Keir and First Minister John Swinney were all in Portsmouth to mark the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
The three men will all due to attend the first-ever National Commemoration ceremony to be held at the British War Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer, France on Thursday.
A snap poll from YouGov suggested the Prime Minister performed marginally better with viewers, with 51% saying he was the winner.
A Savanta survey suggested the opposite, with Sir Keir on 53%.
The SNP’s Kate Forbes was asked about the debate during a campaign stop in Linlithgow. She said it was revealing that neither man mentioned Scotland.
"I think last night's debate tells us everything we need to know about this election.
"First of all, Labour and the Tories will turn up in Scotland and make nice comments. And then you watch the debate and they don't mention Scotland once.
"And that's precisely why we need SNP MPs in Westminster, making sure that the next government doesn't forget about Scotland. "
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel