Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 7:32 pm on 4 February 2002.
The ONS is independent of Government. It produced figures that it now says are wrong. My point is that, yesterday, the hon. Gentleman tried to hawk a story round the journalists of the Sunday newspapers. He managed to get it into the Financial Times, but the Conservative party's central allegation—
"Tories warn of £100 billion hole"— simply does not stand up.