Full House

Iain Martin writes:

The controversial post-Budget bingo “poster” blamed on Grant Shapps, the Tory chairman, was designed in the Treasury and signed off by the Chancellor, the Telegraph has learnt.

After the advertisement highlighting cuts to bingo tax and beer duty was issued it was dubbed a condescending public relations disaster and there were calls for Mr Shapps to be sacked.

But according to Tory MPs, appalled that the party chairman was forced to take the blame, it was approved at the highest level and George Osborne was enthusiastic about it.

Under the headline “Bingo!”, the Tories said tax cuts were designed to “help hardworking people do more of the things they enjoy”.

Critics claimed the use of the word “they” was particularly inept and patronising because it implied that the Tory leadership sees itself as set apart from working-class voters.

A Tory MP said: “It is ridiculous that Grant Shapps has had to take the blame for this poster. When it went wrong they could easily have defended him and said that it was a team effort, which it was. Instead they have hung him out to dry.”

Another MP said that Mr Shapps had not wanted to defend himself for fear of offending the Chancellor: “I’m not Grant’s greatest fan but he has been treated pretty shabbily.”

MPs said that in line with standard Budget-day procedure, on Wednesday afternoon a small team of staffers from Tory headquarters was allowed into the Treasury to work with the Chancellor’s aides on devising political messages aimed at promoting the Budget.

The practice is within the rules approved by civil servants.

Keen to highlight the cuts in bingo tax and beer duty, they produced an advert aimed at “blue-collar” voters. 

With the concept and wording agreed the advert was signed off by the Chancellor as well as by Lynton Crosby, the Tory’s election strategist, and by Stephen Gilbert, the Prime Minister’s political secretary.

That evening, Mr Shapps tweeted the advert to his followers on the social networking site Twitter and encouraged them to “spread the word”.

Although it has been billed as a poster, it was designed purely as a piece of online advertising and it was never intended to be plastered on billboards.

Mr Shapps’s tweet prompted a wave of criticism, some of it made privately by Tory MPs.

Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury, claimed he initially thought it was a spoof. On Thursday, Labour’s shadow Chancellor Ed Balls described the advert as “patronising.”

There was also mockery online, with some users of Twitter creating spoof versions of the advert.

One of the most popular parodies mimicked the Tory design but replaced the slogan with: “I say, you there! How is your whippet? Jolly good, jolly good. Carry on.”

But no attempt was made by the Tory high command to counter claims that Mr Shapps was to blame for the original poster.

On Thursday morning, when he was interviewed on Radio 4's Today programme, the Chancellor sounded evasive when asked whether the advert was patronising.

By yesterday, there were reports surfacing that Mr Shapps faced the sack, with Justice Secretary Chris Grayling tipped as a potential replacement.

A Tory MP and a supporter of Mr Shapps admitted the Tory chairman could have spotted there was a problem and refused to send it out.

But he said the same applied to other senior aides, including Lynton Crosby, the Tories’ election strategist.

Mr Shapps was unavailable for comment on Saturday night.