THE official statistics watchdog has reprimanded the Conservatives after the party claimed the UK had secured £800 billion in “new free trade deals” since leaving the EU.
The figure in fact included deals rolled over from before Brexit.
The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) said it had written to the Tories regarding the infographic, which was shared by Michael Gove last month among others, also warning the party should provide sources for such figures in the future.
The tweet came just days after HMRC confirmed Brexit had reduced Scotland’s exports by £2.2 billion (13%) over the last year.
The SNP’s trade spokesperson, Drew Hendry, wrote to the UKSA about Gove’s use of the graphic, which read: “We’ve secured new free trade deals with over 70 countries since 2016. That’s over £800bn worth of new free trade.”
Hendry has previously said that Gove’s tweet showed he had been “spreading misleading and completely inaccurate statistics on social media” and that this should be corrected.
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In response, the UKSA’s chair, Sir Robert Chote, said that although no citation or source was provided, he assumed the £800bn total came from the £559bn in net trade with EU countries in 2021, plus the £245bn in post-2016 deals with 71 non-EU nations, some of which had also been a rollover of the pre-Brexit deals with the wider EU.
In a letter to Hendry, Chote said: “Under the principles of intelligent transparency, we would expect the infographic to include a source for the figure so that the public can verify the numbers understand the definitions used and put the data into context.
“More specifically in this case, it is misleading to describe the £800bn figure as a measure of ‘new global trade’ resulting from the recent deals. That would imply that there had been no trade with these countries before the recent deals and that there would be none now without them.
“We have spoken to the Conservative Party and asked that any future communications include a link or reference to the source of statistics.
“We have also requested that the party be more transparent about the context and assumptions that have been made to construct such statements and infographics.”
Commenting on the watchdog’s warning, Hendry said: “This letter has confirmed what we suspected: Michael Gove has been spreading misleading and completely inaccurate statistics on social media.
“For a UK Minister to spread fake news of this magnitude is wholly unacceptable. He must now correct the record and make it clear his tweet is misleading.”
He added that Brexit will continue to be an “unmitigated” disaster for households and businesses.
Hendry continued: “Ultimately though, what Brexit has shown is how threadbare the case for continued Westminster control has become.
“Scotland needs an alternative, and that alternative is independence within the European Union.”
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