The UK Statistics Authority has delivered an official reprimand to Michael Gove and his Cabinet Office for faking the figures on post-Brexit trade.
The Road Haulage Association published the results of a survey in February, showing that the volume of exports to the EU fell by more than two-thirds (68 per cent) in January, immediately after the UK finally severed its membership of the European Union.
Gove’s Cabinet Office then pretended that the RHA was wrong, stating that “inbound and outbound flows (across all UK ports) were close to normal, at 95% outbound and 96% inbound, in spite of the impact of Covid lockdowns on trade.”
The UKSA’s reprimand pointed out that the Cabinet Office’s response contained “claims based on unpublished data, and as such these figures cannot be verified”.
Worse still, it referred only to “flows” of lorries, and not to the amount of freight they were carrying.
It is entirely possible that the number of lorries going out to the EU was almost as high from January 1 onwards as they had been before.
But the claim that exports had dropped by two-thirds is also likely to be true if most of those lorries were empty – and they were.
Gove has been caught trying to mislead the public over this important issue. By rights he should resign. But does anybody think he will?
Source: UK Statistics Authority rebukes Gove over Brexit figures | Brexit | The Guardian
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