The PM pulled the win back at a yesterday’s PMQs by running with Guido’s leaked email from Labour insiders who had been told there would be no policy announcement in today’s speech. Fast forward 24 hours and they’ve pulled one out of the hat. After the PM hinted that the 10p tax band would return, Miliband will shortly announce that Labour will reintroduce the rate scrapped by Gordon, funded by the LibDem policy of  a mansion tax on houses over £2 million. Funny that…

What we do know is as of Tuesday the Labour line was that there was no policy:

“Ed Miliband is going to make a ‘major’ speech on the economy on Thursday. It won’t have any new policies in it, but the plan is for Labour to release two or three big economic policies over the next couple of months.”

That was briefed out to supporters attending the speech, and now magically there is one. One that was suggested by a backbench Tory MP and does not look very well costed:

https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/302009465518030849

@PickardJE full reversal would mean putting the 20p rate back to 22p. don't think anyone fancies that!

— Joey Jones (@joeyfjones) February 14, 2013

Did the Eds work this one out on the back of their Valentine’s Day card envelopes?

UPDATE: Quoting a “key advisor” as late as yesterday evening, the line to Labour supporting sites was still that there would be no major policy announcement in today’s speech:

“But I fear most people will ignore it. This is partly because it will not contain major policy announcements to fight an election on. Their reasoning for this is simple: the election is still two years away and no one can predict the state of the economy then. Without knowing that, it is difficult to set budgets and make spending plans.”

With language like “we are taking a shot at the paradigm of the past”, there is no prize for guessing who that “key advisor” was…