Minister in apology after ‘inadvertently misleading’ Commons

Esther McVey forced into climbdown over critical report on Universal Credit

I mistakenly said that the NAO had asked for the rollout of Universal Credit to continue at a faster rate and to be speeded up. In fact, the NAO did not say that. ESTHER MCVEY

Esther McVey has been forced to issue an embarrassing apology to MPs after a public row with Whitehall’s spending watchdog.

The Work and Pensions Secretary said she had “inadvertently misled” the Commons by claiming the National Audit Office (NAO) had called for the rollout of the Universal Credit benefit to be accelerated.

However, she defended her claim that a highly critical NAO report had failed to take into account recent changes made to the flagship benefit.

In a highly unusual step, the head of the NAO publicly rebuked the Cabinet minister over her response to its report.

In an open letter to Ms McVey, auditor general Sir Amyas Morse said elements of her statement to Parliament on the report were incorrect and unproven.

A Downing Street source said Prime Minister Theresa May continues to have full confidence in Ms McVey as Work and Pensions Secretary.

In its report on June 15, the NAO highlighted the hardship caused to claimants by delays in receiving payments under UC.

It concluded that the new system was “not value for money now and that its future value for money is unproven”.

Quizzed about the report’s findings in the House of Commons on Monday, Ms McVey told MPs it was “unfortunate that the NAO was unable to take into account the significant changes recently implemented in Universal Credit” which addressed “many of the concerns” raised in its report.

Despite the report’s recommendation that the programme should not be expanded until it was clear it could cope with additional claimants, Ms McVey said the NAO had expressed concern that UC was “rolling out too slowly” and should “continue at a faster rate”.

In his letter, Sir Amyas told Ms McVey: “Your statement on July 2 that the NAO was concerned Universal Credit is currently ‘rolling out too slowly’ and needs to ‘continue at a faster rate’ is not correct.”

Ms McVey returned to the Commons yesterday to issue her apology.

“I mistakenly said that the NAO had asked for the rollout of Universal Credit to continue at a faster rate and to be speeded up. In fact, the NAO did not say that. What I meant to say was that the NAO had said that there was no practical alternative to continuing with Universal Credit.”

However, she stood by her claim that the NAO had not been able to examine the impact of recent changes.

Shadow work and pensions secretary Margaret Greenwood said: “The NAO report is damning about the rollout of Universal Credit.

“If she didn’t read it properly, that’s incompetence. If she did read it properly and knowingly misled Parliament, then she should resign.”

Picture: PA. Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey has been forced into apologising to MPs.