Chris Leslie MP, Labour’s Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, commenting on a UK Statistics Authority letter following false claims by David Cameron about the Government’s record on the national debt, said:

“These repeated attempts to mislead people about the Government’s failure to keep their promise that the national debt would be falling are unacceptable.

“For David Cameron to have been chastised once on this was bad enough. But to be reprimanded yet again shows this goes beyond error or mistake.

“We can only conclude that there is a deliberate attempt by David Cameron’s Government to mislead the public about their true failures on the national debt.”

ENDS 

Notes to editors:

 1. Copies of Chris Leslie’s letter to Sir Andrew Dilnot and his response can be found on the UK Statistics Authority’s website: http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports—correspondence/correspondence/letter-from-sir-andrew-dilnot-to-chris-leslie-mp-031014.pdf and http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/news/letter-from-chris-leslie-mp-to-sir-andrew-dilnot-011014.pdf

 2. This follows a similar letter last year from Sir Andrew to Rachel Reeves when David Cameron falsely claimed in a Conservative Party Political Broadcast that the Government was “paying down Britain’s debts”. (Letter from Andrew Dilnot to Rachel Reeves, 1 February 2013, http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/reports—correspondence/correspondence/letter-from-andrew-dilnot-to-rachel-reeves-mp—1-february-2013.pdf)