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18 September 2017

Boris Johnson’s £350m mistake – and 6 other statistical errors we all fall for

Boris Johnson was publicly scolded by a statistics boss for resurrecting a Brexit campaign claim.

By Jason Murugesu

Sir David Norgrove, the head of the UK Statistics Authority, wrote an open letter to Boris Johnson on how he was “surprised and disappointed” by the foreign secretary restating that Brexit will lead an extra £350m per week being made available for public spending.

Norgrove went on to say that “it is a clear misuse of official statistics”. Johnson is not the first Conservative cabinet minister to be reprimanded by the Stats Authority. Six others have as well, as detailed by George Eaton

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