Chris Leslie MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, responding to the Chair of the UK Statistics Authority saying that a Treasury document published alongside the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement gave a “false impression” of the government’s investment in infrastructure, said:

“Time and again Ministers are being warned not to mislead the public with false claims, dodgy statistics and biased graphs.

"Now George Osborne and the Treasury have been told off for misleading people about the government’s investment in infrastructure. For example, their chart made it look like investment in flood defences was roughly the same as in other areas, when in fact it was a tiny fraction.

"This government has a track record of trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes. David Cameron has now been rebuked several times for making false claims: on NHS spending, the rising national debt and the impact of his tax rises and spending cuts on economic growth.

"And only last month the Tories came up with more dodgy figures to claim people are better off, but which totally ignored the impact of things like the rise in VAT and cuts to tax credits.

"In their desperation to paint a rosier picture than the truth David Cameron and George Osborne are showing just how out of touch they are with reality.”