Kemi Badenoch has been rebuked by the UK statistics watchdog over a “not wholly accurate” claim about Government spending on benefits.
The Tory Party released a document that said that “for the first time ever, the total welfare bill is now higher than total receipts from income tax” last month.
Writing to the Opposition leader on Wednesday, the UK Statistics Authority said that spending on social security does exceed income tax revenue, but that “this is not a recent or first-time occurrence.”
Figures from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) suggest this has been the case since at least 2011 and the gap has narrowed in recent years, with the positions forecast to reverse in 2026/27, the watchdog said.
“We have reviewed the published statistics and assessed that this claim is not wholly accurate,” interim chair Penny Young wrote.
The Conservatives also focused mainly on out-of-work and sickness benefits in their wider statement and should have made clear that the “total welfare bill” included other benefits like the State Pension, it added.
Ms Young said: “Overall, we are concerned that the inaccuracy of the ‘first time ever’ element of the claim, combined with the absence of this contextual explanation, could lead to misunderstanding among members of the public about welfare spending.”
She added: “Given the prominence of this claim, and the evidence that it is not accurate, we hope that you might consider how best to clarify it so that it fully supports public understanding of trends in taxation and welfare spending.”
A Conservative spokesman acknowledged the claim, which appeared in a document titled the “Alternative King’s Speech”, was inaccurate and said the party would make a correction.
“I don’t think Kemi has ever said it. It did appear in a document. It is incorrect, and we will be correcting it,” they said.
