- On Monday, Boris Johnson claimed that crime figures had been cut by 14%.
- The UK Statistics Authority said that was "misleading" and that total crime figures were up 14%.
- A cut of 14% was only true if fraud and computer misuse figures were excluded.
Boris Johnson's claim in Parliament that crime figures had been cut by 14% was "misleading", the chair of the UK Statistics Authority said.
Johnson said in a debate Monday, while responding to questions on the official report into parties held at Downing Street, that crime figures had been cut by 14%.
The Home Office had earlier made the same claim in a statement.
Johnson told MPs from the despatch box: "What we are actually doing is cutting crime by 14% and putting 20,000 more police on the streets."
But the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, Sir David Norgrove, has said this claim is misleading.
A 14% drop in crime can be found in the change between September 2019 and September 2021, but only if fraud and computer misuse are excluded from the figures. The watchdog complained that "the Prime Minister did not make that clear".
"If fraud and computer misuse are counted in total crime as they should be", the watchdog says, "total crime in fact increased by 14%" in that period.
Alistair Carmichael MP, the Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson, told Insider: "This is a damning verdict from the official watchdog. Yet more distortions from Boris Johnson and his Cabinet to play down the extent of crime.
"When the Government's record on crime is so bad that both the Prime Minister and Home Secretary feel the need to fiddle the figures, it is clear we need a new approach.
"The Prime Minister must come before Parliament to apologise for his latest lie and set the record straight."
Under the Ministerial Code, ministers who "knowingly" mislead the House of Commons are expected to resign.
Insider has contacted Downing Street for comment.