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Labour denies fiddling figures to fit golden rule |
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The Telegraph
By Robert Watts (Filed: 20/02/2005)
The government last night hit back angrily at allegations that civil servants were put under pressure to 'fiddle figures' to ensure that Gordon Brown will meet his self-imposed 'golden rule' of only borrowing to invest over the economic cycle.
In a row that escalated over the weekend, Paul Boateng, the Treasury chief secretary, damned Oliver Letwin, the shadow chancellor, as "immature and irresponsible". Boateng's attack came after the Conservatives raised concerns about the Office for National Statistics' decision to quietly reclassify billions of pounds worth of Government spending as capital expenditure.
Since capital expenditure is not included in Brown's assessment of the golden rule, the reclassification greatly increases the prospect that the chancellor will continue to meet his self-imposed fiscal rule. In recent years tax receipts have fallen sharply and public sector spending has soared, raising fears among most economists that the rule would be broken.
"This is a classic case of fiddled figures . . . if ever there was proof that we needed an independent national statistics office, this is it," Letwin said.
But in a furious counter attack last night, Boateng told The Telegraph: "It is immature and irresponsible for Oliver Letwin to trumpet classification changes when they work in his favour and rubbish them when they do not. It has been made repeatedly clear to him that all these decisions are taken entirely independently by the ONS, and he should be grown up enough to accept that."
The ONS, which compiles and publishes the majority of government figures, has acknowledged that the Treasury influenced its decision to reclassify the statistics, although it denied that this influence was improper.
"There was a joint study with Treasury statisticians but the decision to make the revision was made by the national statistician alone," the department said in a statement.
Details of the revision were buried in a footnote to the public finance figures published on Friday. The note said the ONS would make a "substantial" reclassification of spending on road maintenance from current expenditure to capital expenditure.
The ONS has not said by how much this will reduce current spending figures, but the sum is expected to run into billions of pounds as the readjustment is backdated by at least five years. |
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