London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Boris Johnson wrong to claim crime has fallen, says watchdog

Boris Johnson wrong to claim crime has fallen, says watchdog

The prime minister and the Home Office have been criticised by the UK statistics watchdog for incorrectly claiming crime has fallen.

Speaking in the Commons on Monday, Boris Johnson said crime had come down by 14% since he took office.

It followed a Home Office press release last week that claimed the government "continues to cut crime".

The UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) said the prime minister "did not make clear" the figure excluded fraud.

It also said the Home Office had presented figures in a "misleading way".

The authority was responding to a complaint by the Liberal Democrats, who accused Mr Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel of "fiddling the figures".

The government has commented several times on the stats, released this week for England and Wales, which track crime for the year ending September 2021.

The figures for all crimes estimated by the Crime Survey of England and Wales in fact showed a 14% increase for the period, including a 47% rise in fraud and computer misuse as people moved their lives online during the lockdowns.

But speaking in the Commons, the prime minister said crime had fallen by 14% without mentioning that this figure did not include the rise in fraud and computer crime.

Mr Johnson made the claim while taking questions from MPs following the publication of Sue Gray's report into Downing Street parties during lockdown.

The UKSA said the Home Office press release presented the statistics "to give a positive picture of trends in crime"


Responding to the Liberal Democrats' complaint, UKSA chair Sir David Norgrove said in a letter the official statistics "quite properly" included fraud and computer misuse and the prime minister had excluded them but "did not make this clear".

"If fraud and computer misuse are counted in total crime as they should be, total crime in fact increased by 14% between the year ending September 2019 and the year ending September 2021," he wrote.

He added the Home Office press release presented the statistics "to give a positive picture of trends in crime in England and Wales".

He said the omission of fraud and computer misuse was "stated" in the release but in the title and two other places it had not been made clear crime had only fallen if these offences were not included.

Sir David also noted the Home Office had suggested the fall in other types of crime was related to the government's so-called Beating Crime Plan.

He said "it would have been helpful" if it had been made clear the Office of National Statistics actually believed falls in the relevant crime types were due to the pandemic.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesperson Alistair Carmichael MP said: "This is a damning verdict from the official watchdog. Yet more distortions from Boris Johnson and his cabinet to play down the extent of crime.

"When the government's record on crime is so bad that both the prime minister and home secretary feel the need to fiddle the figures, it is clear we need a new approach.

"The prime minister must come before Parliament to apologise for his latest lie and set the record straight."

Liberal Democrat chief whip Wendy Chamberlain raised the issue in the Commons on Thursday, prompting deputy speaker Dame Rosie Winterton to respond: "If an error has been made I am sure the minister will seek to correct it as quickly as possible."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×