The United Kingdom last month claimed that the government has secured new free trade deals with over 70 countries since 2016 (since Brexit). In a Twitter post, politician Michael Gove also claimed via an infographic that the trade is over £800bn worth of new free trade.
Now, a statistics watchdog in the UK has called out the Conservatives, stating that claim is misleading.
According to the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), the £800bn figure also includes the roll-over agreements which continued pre-Brexit trade arrangements.
The issue was raised when the Scottish National Party (SNP)’s trade spokesperson Drew Hendry, wrote UKSA to complain about the Tory graphic.
While responding to the complaint, UKSA chair Sir Robert Chote replied in a letter that he thought the £800bn figure referred to £559bn in net trade with EU countries last year and around £245bn in post-2016 deals with around 70 non-EU countries.
Chote stated that the information shared by Michael Gove on Twitter is “misleading to describe the £800bn figure as a measure of ‘new global trade’ resulting from the recent deals”.
As quoted by UK-based media outlets, he added: “That would imply that there had been no trade with these countries before the recent deals and that there would be none now without them.”
He also said that the Tory party was contacted to get details as he mentioned that there was no source for the figure “so the public can verify the numbers”.
“We have spoken to the Conservative party and asked that any future communications include a link or reference to the source of statistics,” he said.
He also issued a warning that the party should provide sources for such figures in the future. “Under the principles of intelligent transparency, we would expect the infographic to include a source for the figure so that the public can verify the numbers, understand the definitions used and put the data into context,” Chote wrote to Hendry.
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