THE prime minister has been attacked by an independent watchdog for misleading parliament by using incorrect statistics . The Statistics Commission, part of whose task is to oversee the government’s use of figures, has upheld a complaint from a Tory MP.

Professor David Rhind, the chairman of the commission, has written to the MP, David Gauke, confirming that Gordon Brown, when chancellor, overstated the number of people taking up tax credits.

After his budget in March this year Brown gave evidence to the Commons Treasury committee on March 29. At the time he was under pressure because of an admission by a senior Treasury official that more than 5m people would be made worse off by the budget, partly because of the low take-up of tax credits.

Brown said the scheme was a success and that the number of families taking up the working tax credit had grown by almost 100,000 since April 2005.

Gauke said that in producing this figure Brown was not comparing like with like. His complaint has been upheld.

Rhind says in his letter that the actual increase from April 2005 was 38,000 and that “it looks to us as if the statistical advice given to the chancellor on this point was unsatisfactory and we think that lessons should be drawn for the future”. The commission intends to put a reference to Brown’s breach in its next annual report.

Gauke, Tory MP for South West Hertfordshire and a member of the Treasury committee, said: “It demonstrates that when he is under pressure he will use any argument to get himself out of a hole.

“He has shown that he can be extraordinarily manipulative with numbers.

“He will never concede on any point, even if it means using misleading arguments and statistics. That’s why we say you have to scrutinise everything he says. You have to read the small print.”

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