Michael Fallon - Pants On Fire

The reaction of the Tory Party to Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader has been swift, it has been decisive, and it has been flagrantly dishonest. Promotion of this routine whopper-telling has been led by the party’s dead cat throwing specialist Michael Fallon, who has declared, by the light of his burning trousers, that “Corbyn presents a big ‘risk’ to Britain's national and economic security”.

The Mail helps Fallon pour a little more petrol on his self-inflicted bonfire as it tells “Jeremy Corbyn's hard-left Labour party are a 'serious risk to national security', warns Defence Secretary Michael Fallon … Tory Cabinet minister said Mr Corbyn would 'undermine our defences’”. Note the “hard-left” meme once again, imported directly from the playbook of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse).

So just how draughty is the Tory glasshouse on the issue of “national and economic security”? What grounds does Fallon have for presenting himself as the representative of a party that has our security and wellbeing at heart? Sadly, the answer is, not much.

Economic Security: since Labour were last in office, the UK’s debt has risen from around £1 trillion to £1.5 trillion. George Osborne has consistently failed to meet his borrowing targets. His deficit reduction targets have also been missed. Tax revenues have consistently fallen short of expectations.

Defence Security: in the last five years, the Army has lost more than 20,000 soldiers. The Royal Navy has seen job cuts of 5,000, and the RAF around 8,500. Yet the Tories claim they are the champions of the armed forces.

Border Security: the number of full-time equivalent staff at the UK Border Agency has fallen in the last five years by almost 22%. That’s an interesting kind of security.

Domestic Security: Greater Manchester’s Police and Crime Commissioner has estimated that the number of officers in the force, which was 8,000 in 2010, could fall to as few as 5,500 after recent cuts.

Domestic Security 2: Firefighter numbers in London have been cut by around 10% recently. Other fire authorities are not immune: this year, Staffordshire is cutting posts.

Family Security: cuts to tax credits are likely to see a reduction in income, despite proposed increases in minimum wage levels, for not only single parents, but couples where one parent works full time, and one part time.

Food Security: visits to Trussell Trust food banks rose from 41,000 in 2009-10 to more than a million in 2014-15. And the UK is supposed to be a first world economy.

Now, who was it that was telling voters to “look over there” at someone else on the subject of “security”? That would be Michael Fallon and his pals, who have been merrily undermining the UK’s security on several fronts for the past five years, and will be serving up more of the same in the foreseeable future. Can you smell it? Yes, it’s the distinctly unpleasant aroma of rank, stinking hypocrisy. No change there, then.