Stats watchdog ticks off PM over immigration figures
The prime minister has been slapped down by the UK statistics watchdog for inaccurate use of immigration figures in a podcast last week.
As FactCheck noted on Friday, Gordon Brown quoted figures from two different sets of statistics to back up his claim that net migration – the number of people coming into the country, minus the number of people leaving – is falling. He did not spell out that the figures came from different series – rather like comparing apples and oranges.
The UK Statistics Authority, which monitors the use of official statistics, told us they would look into the podcast on Friday. On Monday, shadow home secretary Chris Grayling also asked the watchdog to request that Brown “clarifies his remarks and undertakes not to mislead the public during the approaching general election campaign”.
Today Sir Michael Scholar, head of the UK Statistics Authority, wrote to the PM to say he had received representations “from several sources” about the podcast.
“I attach a note, prepared by the ONS, on these statistics,” he wrote. “You will see that the note points out that the podcast did not use comparable data series for 2007 to 2009, and that it did not take account of the revised estimate of long-term net immigration for 2007.”
“The Statistics Authority hopes that in the political debate over the coming weeks all parties will be careful in their use of statistics, to protect the integrity of official statistics,” he concluded.
This morning Brown seemed to have done his homework. He made a speech on immigration, in which he quoted from both sets of figures correctly.
UPDATE: Downing Street later accepted the original figures used were misleading.
“We accept that some of the statistics used in the Prime Minister’s podcast were not strictly comparable and as a result were unclear,” a spokesman said.
“As the chair of the Statistics Authority points out in his letter, the Prime Minister clarified the position in his speech today. The figures he used in his speech are consistent with the analysis set out in the accompanying note from Sir Michael Scholar.”
There are 11 comments on this post
Cathy we know that when Gordon quotes figures they are likely to be incorrect .One might be able to forgive the odd error , but isn’t it strange that whenever a figure shows him in a bad light it is twisted. From defence spending, through the out of work figures and immigration .Some call it spin , but i am afraid the man is an habitual liar .Either that or totally incompetent.A man who presided over the finances of this country and can not get his figures correct has to be a liar or unfit to hold office.
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Well done Cathy.This is journalism at its best. At the time I didn’t think you got the media credit you deserve, as was the case over your work on ‘defence cuts’.
Though of course it now begs the question – why would anyone believe Porkie Brown?
http://theorangepartyblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-would-anyone-believe-porkie-brown.html
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thank goodness for fact check! please keep this part of the programme indefinitely, a very worthwhile addition to our information.
phil woolas was hilarious defending the pm’s speech – reminded me purely of the “no” man sketch from the fast show. (just keep denying everything even when you know you’re wrong and front it out!)
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The unfortunate habit of being incorrect with the facts or not quite full with the information is not a habit Mr Brown has only recently developed. However, I cannot believe anyone would be so stupid as to repeatedly deliberately mislead, though the only remaining explanation is that he has attained a level of incompetence that can only be achieved with remarkable dedication and extreme effort.
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[...] Hat-tip : C4 News Fact Check [...]
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[...] and this time it has needed a civil servant to write to him to point out the error of his ways. Factcheck at C4 reveals that Brown’s false pronouncements on immigration figures were extrapolated [...]
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Caught lying three times in less than a month.
That’s bad enough but the circumstances imply that either Brown is an idiot or that (probably more likely) he thinks we all are.
Lying to parliament, the Chilcott enquiry and the British public with easily disproveable statistics. Did he really think nobody would check or is he just so arrogant that he thought he’d get away with it.
He’s not only a liar, he’s not even a very good liar.
The sad thing is though that I wouldn’t trust any of the others either.
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Hmm, yet everyone ignores the fact the total immigration constitutes the summation based on the area under the graph of net immigration.
We have now had enough, they have lied and we are fed up with them.
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The viable state, as well as system of authority is not necessary to prove, that, should be defined not so much by ideology, how many expediency. What threats and advantages to any state cause these processes. At a correct policy of a survival, in conditions of global crisis it is necessary to look at these things from a position of expediency and common sense. All depends on authority, what purposes and problems, it puts
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Gordon Brown read History at University. His forte is to sit hour after hour absorbing and committing to memory historical details. He is not an intuitive person, he slogs away at things he does not have an aptitude for maths. He has convinced himself that he is clever and resourceful and has trumpeted this for years and as usual the media and the public at large has assumed he was what he claimed. Ironically History will prove him wrong and expose his lack in economic and leadership skills.
He like all Socialist in history and throughout the world convince themselves that they know what is best for their ‘subjects’ and will say and do anything to gain or hang on to power making impositions on others that do not apply to themselves.
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[...] lied over Iraq doesn’t mean they’d lie to you over anything else, does it? You know, statistics and figures and the benchmarks that measure our [...]
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