Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has challenged Boris Johnson to correct the record after misleadingly claiming crime has fallen, and apologise to the four million victims of fraud he has written out of the picture.
The UK Statistics Authority last week officially rebuked Boris Johnson and Priti Patel for misleadingly claiming that crime had fallen, following a letter of complaint by Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng then claimed this weekend that fraud isn’t something people experience in their day-to-day lives.
Analysis by the Liberal Democrats show there were 100,393 fraud offences referred to the police in London last year, 8,957 fraud offences in Surrey which is home to Kwasi Kwarteng’s constituency of Spelthorne, and 11,829 fraud offences in Essex which includes Priti Patel’s seat of Witham.
Boris Johnson today refused to agree to correct the record, after being challenged to by Ed Davey at PMQs.
Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said: “Boris Johnson must correct the record and apologise to the four million victims of fraud he is writing out of the picture, including thousands of people in his own backyard.
“Conservative ministers are causing immense hurt to fraud victims by dismissing this cruel crime. Many people have lost their life savings to cruel scammers and suffered huge financial and emotional harm.
“They deserve a proper apology from the prime minister and for this government to start taking fraud seriously.”