Johnson accuses senior official of ‘distorting’ words over £350m

£200m Sir David Norgrove’s assessment of a post Brexit financial fall taking rebates and subsidies into account

BORIS JOHNSON last night accused the head of the statistics watchdog of “wilfully distorting” his words in an extraordinary spat over the claim that Britain will gain £350million per week from Brexit.

The Foreign Secretary engaged in a tit-for-tat public row with Sir David Norgrove, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, during which each man effectively accused the other of lying.

Last year Sir David rubbished claims made by Mr Johnson during the Leave campaign that Britain would be £350million per week better off when it left the EU, saying rebates and EU subsidies to the UK meant the net figure was almost £200million lower. In an article published in Saturday’s

Daily Telegraph, Mr Johnson revisited the claim, saying that: “We will take back control of roughly £350million per week. It would be a fine thing ... if a lot of that money went on the NHS.”

A front-page article about his essay was headlined: “Boris: Yes, we will take back £350m from EU for NHS.”

Sir David, a former private secretary to Margaret Thatcher, wrote to Mr Johnson yesterday saying he was “surprised and disappointed” that the claim had been repeated by him. He accused him of “a clear misuse of official statistics”. He wrote: “I am surprised and disappointed that you have chosen to repeat the figure of £350 million per week, in connection with the amount that might be available for extra public spending when we leave the European Union. This confuses gross and net contributions. It also assumes that payments currently made to the UK by the EU, including for example for the support of agriculture and scientific research, will not be paid by the UK government when we leave.”

Mr Johnson hit back, with his spokesman texting lobby journalists: “Boris has spoken to Norgrove and he has made clear that he was complaining about the headlines and not Boris’ piece and, in fact, admitted that Boris’ wording in the piece was absolutely fine.” Not so, said Sir David. Less than an hour later, a spokesman for the UK Statistics Authority said: “Sir David Norgrove does not believe the issues lie solely with the headlines. He has not changed the conclusion set out in his letter.”

Within minutes, Mr Johnson’s spokesman was texting again. “We stand by what we said earlier regarding the call with David Norgrove and the £350million figure.” The Foreign Secretary then fired off a 550-word letter to Sir David, accusing him of a “complete misrepresentation” of his claims about Brexit and urged him to withdraw the criticism. Where Sir David had been “surprised and disappointed” by Mr Johnson’s claims, Mr Johnson was “surprised and disappointed by your letter”. He said it was “based on what appeared to be a wilful distortion of the text of my article”.

He said that “taking back control” of £350million was not the same as saying there would be an extra £350million available for public spending and “I am amazed that you should impute such a statement to me”. The letter ends: “If you had any concerns about my article, it would of course have been open to you to address the points with me in private rather than in this way in a public letter. As it is, if you seriously disagree with any of the above, I look forward to hearing your reasoning.” A spokesman for Sir David said the letter “doesn’t alter his view”.

Hetan Shah, of the Royal Statistical Society, said Mr Johnson was playing a “dangerous game” in seeking to “undermine” the independent regulator of public statistics. Chuka Umunna, of Labour, said: “The £350 million figure was simply wrong during the referendum campaign, and it’s wrong now.”