Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has denied that he risked misleading people by his characterization of Labour's tax plans. The UK statistics watchdog said anyone who heard Mr Sunak say Labor would raise taxes by £2,000 per working household would have no way of knowing that was a sum totaled over four years. It also repeated the objection raised by the Treasury's top civil servant that the Conservatives had presented the figure as if it had been produced by impartial civil servants. The prime minister made the claim several times during the first live TV debate with Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer on Tuesday. The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) said that when political parties make high-profile numerical claims about their policies, or those of their opponents, they should "avoid misleading or confusing people".
Sir Keir hit back after the debate was broadcast on ITV, accusing the prime minister of "deliberately" lying about Labour's plans, adding that he would not bring in tax rises for working people. But in an interview for ITV's Tonight programme, recorded on Thursday, Mr Sunak replied "no" when asked by presenter Paul Brand if he was "willing to lie in order to stay in power". The prime minister added that Labor were "rattled that we've exposed their plans to raise tax". Like the Conservatives, Labor has pledged not to increase the rate of income tax, National Insurance and VAT if it wins the election. BBC Verify has analyzed the Conservatives' £2,000 tax claims and concluded that they risked misleading people.
In a statement released on Thursday, the statistics watchdog said the Conservatives had published a document explaining which Labor policies it had included when coming up with the number, how it interpreted the policies and how Treasury officials had costed some but not all of them. On Mr Sunak's claim that "independent Treasury officials" had costed the figure, the OSR referred to a letter from the chief Treasury civil servant, James Bowler, to Labour's Darren Jones. In it, he said the Conservative Party document included costs "beyond those provided by the civil service and published online by HM Treasury". "I agree that any costings derived from other sources or produced by other organizations should not be presented as having been produced by the Civil Service," he wrote. The OSR, which is the independent regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority, also went on to say: "Without reading the full Conservative Party costing document, someone hearing the claim would have no way of knowing that this is an estimate summed together over four years.
"We warned against this practice a few days ago, following its use in presenting prospective future increases in defense spending." In an interview filmed for ITV's The Leader Interviews: Rishi Sunak, due to be broadcast in full on 12 June, the prime minister was asked about his use of the £2,000 figure and said: "I think people know that I'm across the detail when it comes to numbers."
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