LABOUR spent almost £8,000 on the giant slab of marble, dubbed the “Ed Stone”,
which turned their election campaign into a laughing stock.
A party source has revealed the cost of commissioning, transporting and
storing the eight foot plinth, which was destroyed soon after their
disastrous result in May last year.
Exact details were not submitted to the Electoral Commission yesterday, Labour
citing an administrative error, but a spokeswoman said it would be uploaded
soon.
The moment Ed Miliband was seen standing in front of the structure in a car
park in Hastings less than a week before polling day he was ridiculed.
Said to be the brainchild of former policy adviser Torsten Bell, it was
immediately dubbed a “policy tombstone” for the then-Labour leader.
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Sparking a million jokes on Twitter and the infamous #EdStone hashtag, it came
to be synonymous with the party’s calamitous campaign.
It was supposed to be unveiled in a sports centre but was too heavy, and had
to be moved to the wet car park for fears it would break through the floor.
The stone was inscribed with six pledges, and Miliband’s signature, to try and
prove they wouldn’t break their promises if they won the election.
If Ed had got into Downing Street there were plans to put the EdStone in the
rose garden, but thankfully this never came to pass.
Instead staff from Labour attacked the slab with hammers, making sure it would
never see the light of day.