Row over struggling builder featured in Conservative TV slot

This week’s Conservative Party Political Broadcast (PPB) featured a builder talking about how his firm is struggling due to the recession. However, it turns out he went bankrupt in 2006, at the height of the building boom:

Shane Prescott starred in the Conservative party broadcast on Thursday, claiming his business had struggled because of the recession.

But Companies House records show the 51-year-old father-of-four’s loft conversion firm actually went into liquidation at the height of the boom in 2006.

It is believed when his business went into liquidation he owed £240,000 to creditors and £174,000 to Revenue and Customs.

He was used in a political video by the Conservatives as the epitome of a Britain betrayed by Gordon Brown and was seen as the British equivalent of Joe the Plumber, who challenged Barack Obama at a campaign rally and became the symbol of recession-hit America.

But the revelations about Mr Prescott’s finances also echo the loss of credibility suffered by Joseph Wurzelbacher – allegedly unlicensed. [Liverpool Daily Post]