I've written to the Prime Minister today to demand him to take action to ensure the Deputy Prime Minister comes to parliament to correct the record. Please see my letter in full below:
Dear Prime Minister,
I am writing to you regarding comments made by the Deputy Prime Minister, Oliver Dowden, in the House of Commons. I raised a Point of Order on this in Parliament on Wednesday 5th July.
During the Deputy Prime Minister’s appearance in the Chamber on 7th June, The Deputy PM claimed that the Labour Party’s plan to invest £28 billion a year in green energy would add £1,000 a year “to everyone’s mortgage”. He made that claim a day after the Daily Mail reported that figure and said that it came from Treasury analysis.
However, the Treasury has since admitted that the statistic does not come from official analysis. The Treasury was forced to make that admission to the UK Statistics Authority, after the organisation demanded to know where the figure had come from.
The UKSA told LBC that despite investigation, it had been unable to find any official source for the figure. Its spokesperson stated:
“We spoke to HMT and they have informed us the figure quoted is not based on any analysis produced by Treasury officials.”
Prime Minister, as you know, the ministerial code, by which all Government Ministers must abide, states:
“It is of paramount importance that Ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity.”
Given the Deputy PM’s statement in the Commons has been proven incorrect, I want to ask you the following questions:
1. Can you state, for the record, where did the Deputy Prime Minister get the figure from?
2. Will you instruct the Deputy Prime Minister to return to the House of Commons at the earliest opportunity to correct the record?
3. If the Deputy Prime Minister does not correct the record, will you initiate an official investigation into whether he has breached the ministerial code?
These are very important matters and I am sure that you would not want your deputy, who was speaking in your absence, to mislead the House of Commons. I also note that on your first day as Prime Minister you promised “integrity and accountability”.
You may be aware that the Speaker of the House of Commons made the following response to my Point of Order last week:
“I am sure that Ministers on the Treasury Bench have heard that, and I am sure that the Minister responsible will want to correct it ASAP.”
I therefore look forward to the Deputy Prime Minister urgently correcting the record about his false claim.
Thank you for considering this matter and I hope for a speedy response. I also reserve the right to share my letter publicly.
Yours sincerely,
Dawn
Also please see below the video I took earlier today as well as the original Point of Order I made: