News from Labour Matters

Conservatives make another unforced election error

Cameron’s Conservatives’ continued making unforced election campaign errors today with the release of a document designed to demonstrate that Britain is broken:

But the strategy was set back when it emerged that figures on teenage pregnancy in the poorest areas were vastly exaggerated.

It claimed that the conception rate among under-18 girls in the 10 most disadvantaged areas was 54%. The real figure was 54 per 1,000.

Labour pointed out that even that figure had fallen from 60 per 1,000 in 1998.

Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls said the “dodgy” figures were an insult to communities and called on the Tories to withdraw the document.

“David Cameron’s latest deception and airbrushed statistics cannot conceal the fact that the Tories haven’t changed,” he said.

“They are totally out of touch and have nothing to say on the important issue of reducing teenage pregnancies except smears and distortions.”

A Conservative Party spokesman said last night: “A decimal point was left out in a calculation,” but the same error was repeated three times in the document.

Read the full article.