JEREMY Hunt has been pulled up by the official statistics watchdog over inaccuracy in his claims about public debt.
The Chancellor sent out a tweet on April 25 which claimed public debt levels would fall in the coming years when in fact they are simply forecast to rise less steeply than previously expected.
According to the Guardian, the head of the UK Statistics Authority Sir Robert Chote is now writing to Hunt and the Treasury to warn them about accuracy after Labour MP Angela Eagle made a complaint about the post.
Hunt said the government had “made progress” on public finances tweeting: “By 2027-28, headline debt levels are reduced by £53.7 billion.”
Former Treasury minister Eagle then wrote to Chote noting that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts indicate that public debt will rise between now and 2027/28, including a £90bn increase from 2026/27 alone.
She said Hunt was referring to a fall in the OBR’s current projection for headline debt in 2027/28 compared with the same forecast in last year’s autumn statement, expressing concern that the Government was using “misleading statistics”.
In a reply, Chote said Treasury officials had confirmed this was what the tweet referred to: a reduction in the size of the forecast increase of debt, not a fall in the debt itself.
“As you suggest, some readers of the tweet may have assumed that the chancellor was referring to the forecast change in public sector net debt between the last full financial year and 2027-28,” he wrote.
“Greater clarity and context would have avoided this confusion. The Office for Statistics Regulation [the regulatory arm of the UKSA] has therefore spoken with officials at HM Treasury to emphasise the importance of consistently adopting a transparent and accessible approach to communicating statistics and data in line with our guidance on intelligent transparency.”
The Treasury said it would take necessary action.
