Brown: Manifesto Pledges Are Lies

Okay, I'm paraphrasing just a smidge, but that is roughly what the Prime Minister's barrister admitted in open court today.

In a case brought by a UKIP (and former Labour Party) member, Stuart Bower, against the Government over the pre-election promise of a referendum on the EU Constitution (now removed as the Government claim that the Lisbon treaty isn't a constitution, despite it being basically a slightly tidied up version of the old constitution document).

While Bower probably never expected to win the case (and he didn't), I doubt he could have believed his luck when the barrister, Celia Ivimy said;

"A manifesto promise is incapable of giving rise to a legally binding contract with the electorate. It is a point which is so obvious that I don't want to labour it."

So, as blogger Trixy managed to get to the world first, the Government have now confirmed that anything written in an election manifesto is likely to be a lie.