Last week I reported that Labour’s Rachel Reeves had issued a complaint to the UK Statistics Authority after David Cameron falsely stated in a Conservative Party political broadcast that the coalition “was paying down Britain’s debts”.
Andrew Dilnot, the chair of the stats authority, has now replied to Reeves, confirming that there was no basis for Cameron’s claim. He rightly points out that the national debt has risen from £811.3bn, or 55.3 per cent of GDP, to £1,111.4bn, or 70.7 per cent of GDP, since the coalition entered office. This is hardly surprising. For debt to fall, the government would have to run a budget surplus, something unthinkable at a time of economic stagnation. But that hardly excuses Cameron’s myth-making. The PM doesn’t need to be told the difference between the deficit and the debt (although Dilnot helpfully reminds him anyway), he just chooses to use the latter as a synoym for the former because it’s a more familiar concept to voters.
It’s not the first time that the PM has had his knuckles rapped by the nation’s number-crunchers. Last year, the Conservatives were forced to correct their claim to have increased real-terms spending on the NHS “in each of the last two years”.
After complaining for years about Gordon Brown’s manipulation of economic statistics, the government came to power promising a new regime of transparency. But Cameron’s willful distortion of the facts on debt and NHS spending shows he’s been unable to hold himself to this standard.
So it’s just as well that Dilnot assures us, “I am copying this to the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff at 10 Downing Street”.
You can read his reply to Reeves in full below.
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