Shadow chief secretary Rachel Reeves says the Tories may be attempting to "deliberately mislead the public" about over statistics and the government's record.
Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Rachel Reeves MP (Labour, Leeds West), has written to Andrew Dilnot, chair of the UK Statistics Authority over David Cameron’s claims in a Tory party political broadcast that the government was “paying down Britain’s debts”; here is her letter in full:
Dear Andrew,
I am sure you will agree that it is vital that public debate is informed by accurate use of statistics.
However, in a Party Political Broadcast by the Conservative Party last night, the prime minister said:
“We are now halfway through the coalition’s time in government and in two and a half years we have achieved a lot but I know people don’t just want to hear from me, they want to know the facts…
“So though this government has had to make some difficult decisions, we are making progress. We are paying down Britain’s debts.”
As you will be aware, figures from the Office for National Statistics published this week show that the national debt is not being paid down, but is actually rising. Since this government came to office, public sector net debt has risen from £811.3 billion (55.3 per cent of GDP) in the second quarter of 2010, to £1,111.4 billion at the end of December 2012 (70.7 per cent of GDP).
The Office for Budget Responsibility has also forecast that public sector net debt will continue to rise and the government’s target to get it falling by 2015-16 will not be met.
This is not the first time government ministers have made similar claims about the national debt. However, last night’s party political broadcast is the first occasion I am aware of when the prime minister has made such a claim in a scripted broadcast. This suggests that the Conservative Party may be attempting to deliberately mislead the public about these statistics and the government’s record.
I would be grateful if you could bring some clarity to the situation and advise on how we can ensure that in the future debate on the national debt is accurate and based on the facts.
Yours sincerely,
Rachel Reeves MP
See also:
• Borrowing is rising after all – January 22nd, 2013
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16 Responses to “Reeves: Tories “may be attempting to deliberately mislead the public” over stats and government’s record”
uKip alot Ian
When Rachel Reeves & Labour talk about benefit cuts we should all be
aware that Labour introduced the so called ‘bedroom tax’ which is really a
benefit reduction or ‘spare room subsidy.
Surely this amounts to misleading the electorate & the usual Labour hypocricy.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo011219/text/11219w19.htm#11219w19.html_spnew5
Hansard Parliamentary Record19 Dec 2001 : Column: 376W
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what was
the figure for expenditure on the housing benefit under occupation pilot that
was not specified on page 103 of the 2001 Departmental report. [18917]
Malcolm Wicks (Labour MP now deceased): The under-occupation pilot
encourages housing benefit recipients living in under- occupied social housing
to move to smaller and cheaper accommodation in order to make more efficient
use of housing stock. The pilot is expected to run until 2003.
(scroll up a little from the link to find this quote)