Labour and the Conservatives were today locked in the first big squabble of this year's general election campaign as the Tories described claims by the chancellor, Alistair Darling, that they had a £34bn black hole in their spending plans as "a dodgy dossier full of lies".In one of the morning's press conferences that laid out some of the battlegrounds of the long campaign - to culminate in an expected polling day on 6 May - Darling said the Conservatives were trying to fight the election "on a nod and a wink".He issued a 148-page document laying out what he said were Tory weaknesses on spending, with £45bn in spending commitments backed up by only £11bn to pay for them.
Labour and the Conservatives were today locked in the first big squabble of this year's general election campaign as the Tories described claims by the chancellor, Alistair Darling, that they had a £34bn black hole in their spending plans as "a dodgy dossier full of lies".
In one of the morning's press conferences that laid out some of the battlegrounds of the long campaign - to culminate in an expected polling day on 6 May - Darling said the Conservatives were trying to fight the election "on a nod and a wink".
He issued a 148-page document laying out what he said were Tory weaknesses on spending, with £45bn in spending commitments backed up by only £11bn to pay for them.
