Party launches personal attack that criticises opposition leader’s tax policy and pacifist views, but Labour responded that the move was ‘desperate’

The Conservatives have launched a personal attack on Jeremy Corbyn by pasting his picture over an image of a bomb with the slogan: “No bombs for our army, one big bombshell for your family.”

The image of the bomb behind the Labour leader’s head is stamped with the words: “More debt, higher tax.”

In text accompanying the poster Theresa May’s party claimed there was a £45bn gap between Labour’s spending plans and the revenue it would raise. But Labour hit back by saying the advert was “yet more nonsense” and dismissing it as “desperate”.

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The Conservatives accompanied the advert with words from David Davis, the secretary of state for Brexit.



He said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s nonsensical and irresponsible ideas pose a grave risk to the future of Britain’s economy and the finances of every family in the country.”



A Labour spokesman said the Tories were trying to distract from the fact that May has not ruled out tax increases.

“Their false claims about Labour’s plans in this campaign haven’t been worth the paper they’ve been printed on,” he said. “They’ve fallen apart before the ink has dried on their latest press release. This will no doubt be no different with more claims that can’t be backed up and misrepresentations of the truth.

“Labour’s policies are fully costed and properly paid for. Our plans will be set out in our manifesto. Don’t trust the Tories: they are the party of the few, not the many.”

Although the focus of the advert’s words is economic, the bomb is likely to have been included as a way of reminding people of Corbyn’s pacifist views. The Conservatives have attacked him on national security after he said he would not press the nuclear button first and over his long-held belief in nuclear disarmament.



Labour had to shut down speculation that it could withdraw support for Britain’s nuclear deterrent, after Corbyn – in an interview with Andrew Marr – appeared to leave open the idea that renewing Trident could be left out of the party’s manifesto. He also suggested he would think twice about backing a strike to kill the leader of Islamic State.

The bombshell poster is not the first time that the Conservatives have attacked Corbyn over his pacifist stance. The defence secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, last month described the Labour leader as feeble and gutless on defence, claiming that the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, would welcome a Labour victory.

The ad also seems to owe a debt to a famous poster employed against Neil Kinnock in the 1992 general election. That poster also showed a big bomb and the words: “Labour’s tax bombshell - you’d pay £1,250 more tax a year under Labour.”

It is not known what role the Tories’ election strategist Lynton Crosby played in coming up with the Corbyn poster. He is once again a key figure in the campaign, having been prominent during the 2015 general election that delivered a Tory majority.

During that campaign Fallon claimed the then Labour leader Ed Miliband would do a deal with the Scottish National party over Trident in return for support in a hung parliament.

Miliband responded at the time: “Michael Fallon is a decent man but today I think he has demeaned himself and demeaned his office. National security is too important to play politics with. I will never compromise our national security, I will never negotiate away our national security.”