Brown accused of lying to misleading Parliament by Fox

The Tories have just put a press release out* that contains the following quote from Liam Fox and little more,

"At Prime Minister’s Questions today Gordon Brown repeatedly made the allegation that the Conservatives pledged to cut defence spending at the 2005 election, when our manifesto was committed to a £2.7bn increase in frontline spending. Gordon Brown must apologise for misleading the House. Another day, another figure, same wrong Gordon Brown."

Just did a quick Google search to check and page 25 of the Tory 2005 manifesto seems clear as it says,

A Conservative Government will strengthen our Armed Forces within NATO by spending £2.7 billion more than Labour on the front line by 2007-08.

No doubt there is some hypothecated way that can be called a "cut", after all, Brown say's defence spending is increasing but the Pre-Budget Report from the Treasury says the MoD budget will be £38.9 billion in 2009/10 and £36.7 billion the following year.

Figures huh?

* This is the first time I've actually found a Tory press release useful.

Note: This is the second accusation of misleading Parliament of the day for Brown, as mentioned in my previous post. Read Eric Pickles letter to Brown here.