Michael Gove has launched a new poster campaign putting Gordon Brown’s record at the heart of the election campaign.

These posters arrive alongside a new analysis of Labour’s time in power, and you can view both by clicking the links below.

Read the document

Speaking at the launch, Shadow Education Secretary Michael Gove said:

“Gordon Brown is asking people to vote him in for another five years but he and his tired Government will just make things worse.”

“He has doubled our national debt and squandered billions of pounds selling off Britain’s gold at rock bottom prices. He has taken billions out of our pensions system and doubled the tax rate for the poorest workers. He has let down our young people by causing record youth unemployment, and overseen an increase in the gap between the rich and poor. And he has let 80,000 criminals out of prison early, leading to 1,500 crimes being committed by people who should have been behind bars.”

“We can’t go on like this. The choice at this election is five more years of Gordon Brown’s tired government making things worse or David Cameron and the Conservatives with the energy, leadership and values to get the country moving.”

… and here are some other things Gordon Brown did…

Cut the Defence Budget at a time of war – and got caught out denying it!

Gordon Brown misled the Chilcot Inquiry, Parliament and the public when he claimed that ‘the defence budget has been rising every year since 1997’
(Hansard, 10 March 2010, Col. 291).

He was later forced to admit that ‘I do accept that in one or two years defence expenditure did not rise in real terms’
(Hansard, 17 March 2010).

Figures from the Ministry of Defence show that the defence budget actually fell year-on-year in real terms on four occasions since 1997 – in 1998, 1999, 2002 and 2007.
(Channel 4 News Factcheck, 10 March 2010).

Taxed jobs as we were emerging from recession.

Last December, Gordon Brown’s Government announced a tax on jobs – a 0.5 per cent rise in the rate of National Insurance Contributions for both employees and employers. This comes on top of the
rise in NICs announced in the 2008 PBR, meaning a total planned rise of 1 per cent. This is a tax on all businesses and on every person earning over £20,000.
The Federation of Small Businesses has estimated that this could mean up to 57,000 jobs are lost. (FSB,
Press Release, 24 March 2010)

Increased spending on quangos by £10 billion.

The cost of unelected and poorly accountable government bodies has soared by almost £10 billion under Gordon Brown. In his first year as Prime Minister, total expenditure on so-called
“executive non-departmental public bodies” rose from £37.0 billion to £43.0 billion in 2007-08 – a 16 per cent rise
(Cabinet Office, Public Bodies 2007, p.10; Public Bodies 2008, p.10).

Figures for 2008-09 revealed quango expenditure rose by another £3.5 billion to £46.5 billion – a 7 per cent rise
(Cabinet Office, Public Bodies 2009, p.6) making a mockery of his claims to deliver a new politics.

Brought boom and bust to the NHS – which led to NHS cuts.

Despite massively increasing spending, Gordon Brown has been guilty of a ‘boom and bust’ approach to the NHS finances, forcing NHS Trusts into cuts and wasteful short-term spending. Between 2005 and 2007, 14,500 jobs were cut from the NHS as Trusts struggled to recover from deficits
(NHS Information Centre, NHS Staff 1998-2008, 25 March 2009).

And since 2004, the number of beds in the NHS has been cut by 21,500 – the equivalent of 12 per cent
(Department of Health, Bed availability and occupancy 2008-09, 30 September 2009).

Accident and Emergency departments and maternity units up and down the country have faced or are facing cuts and closures. And things are only set to get worse, as one of Gordon Brown’s own health advisers said that ‘the days of the District General Hospital are over’
(Professor Sir Ara Darzi, NHS London, A Framework for Action, 11 July 2007).

Let truancy rise to record levels.

In 1998, Gordon Brown’s Treasury set a target to reduce truancy rates to 0.5 per cent
(HM Treasury, Comprehensive Spending Review, Public Service Agreements 1999-2000, December 1998).

But the figure now stands at 1.05 per cent – up 44 per cent since 1996/7, well in excess of the Government’s target, and at a record high. 67,000 pupils skip school without permission every day
(DCSF, Pupil Absence in Schools in England, Including Pupil Characteristics: 2008/09, 25 March 2010).

Paid couples more to live apart than together.

The tax credit system penalises parents who live together, giving families a financial incentive to split up.
The IFS has highlighted the fact that a couple with children earning £20,000 between them could be more than £5,000 better off in terms of benefits and tax credits if they split up.
(The Sunday Times, 4 March 2007).

Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox has responded to the publication of the Government’s defence Green Paper.

“Bob Ainsworth deserves genuine praise for his attempts to find a cross party consensus. This Green Paper indicates that the MoD is coming out of denial but the Prime Minister is not”, he said.

Fox criticised Gordon Brown for “undermining a Secretary of State on the front page of the Times”, contrasting the Defence Secretary’s defence cut backs in December with the Prime Minister’s announcement of defence increases this week.

He also criticised the Prime Minister’s office for “briefing that any project that has job implications for the Prime Minister’s constituency will be spared”.

Fox said he agreed that France and the United States are likely to be our main strategic partners, but added that there were two tests: ”Do they invest in defence? And do they fight?  Too few European allies pass both these tests.”

And he called on the Government to “give honest answers about the implications of the cost overruns in the years ahead”, given that – unlike the Opposition and the House of Commons - it has access to all the costs of the contracts and penalty clauses for the major programmes.

Later on, Fox called on Gordon Brown to apologise for misleading the House of Commons. At Prime Minister’s Questions he repeatedly made the allegation that the Conservatives pledged to cut defence spending at the 2005 election, when the manifesto was committed to a £2.7bn increase in frontline spending.

Read Liam Fox’s speech in Parliament in response to the Secretary of State’s statement