An expert namechecked by Boris Johnson to avoid making international comparisons of coronavirus deaths has told him to stop.
The Prime Minister and other ministers have repeatedly cited an article by Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter as saying they shouldn't make international comparisons.
But the author of the article says he's been misinterpreted, and "of course" we should use other countries to work out why our death figures are so high.
Asked by Keir Starmer why the UK's growing death figures, which today passed 30,000, were so grim compared to other countries, the PM said international comparisons shouldn't be drawn yet.
He said: "In answer to his question, I would echo what we have heard from Professor David Spiegelhalter and others: at this stage I do not think that the international comparisons and the data are yet there to draw the conclusions that we want."
He and others have referred to an article for the Guardian in which Sir David wrote: "Every country has different ways of recording Covid-19 deaths: the large number of deaths in care homes have not featured in Spain’s statistics – which, like the UK’s require a positive test result.
"The numbers may be useful for looking at trends, but they are not reliable indicators for comparing the absolute levels."
But tonight, Sir David said the PM had misinterpreted his article, and asked him and his colleagues to stop.
He wrote on Twitter : "Polite request to PM and others: please stop using my Guardian article to claim we cannot make any international comparisons yet.
"I refer only to detailed league tables-of course we should now use other countries to try and learn why our numbers are high."
Housing Minister Robert Jenrick insisted it is too early to make international comparisons in tonight's daily briefing, after after the UK's official death toll surpassed Italy's.
"It is difficult to make international comparisons with certainty today, there will be a time for that," he said.
"That's a hard calculation to do with accuracy today."
Public Health England medical director Professor Yvonne Doyle has said the numbers of both Covid-19 deaths and hospital patients with the disease are continuing to fall.
Speaking at the daily No 10 press briefing, she said the number of fatalities was "slowly going down" but that it was too soon to draw international comparisons.
"It is far too early to say how countries have fared in this epidemic," she said.
"We need to give it some time - probably a year."
The government has been using graphs which make international comparisons of death figures in the press conference every day.
