By JAMES SLACK Gordon Brown, recently criticised by the statistics watchdog for using misleading immigration statistics, made further inaccurate statements in the heat of Thursday night's debate. Here, the Mail examines the Prime Minister's claims. Confusing figures: Several statistics Gordon Brown used during the debate don't stand up MR BROWN: 'Let's be honest, net inward migration is falling, it's falling three years ago, two years ago and it's falling this year.' REALITY: The most recent immigration figures relate to 2008. The figure for that year (163,000) represented a fall on the figure for 2007 (233,000). But, between 2006 and 2007, net migration had risen by 42,000. So, there is only one consecutive year in which net migration has fallen. To claim two or even three consecutive falls is wrong. Mr Brown has previously cited incomplete data for 2009 to bolster his case - but was rebuked by the UK Statistics Authority. BROWN: '[Net inward migration] is falling as a result of the action we are taking and will continue to take.' REALITY: While net immigration fell by 70,000 between 2007 and 2008, of that 67,000 - or 95 per cent - was a result of a fall in net migration from the new Eastern European members of the EU. That had nothing to do with government policy as East Europeans have free movement. BROWN: 'Border controls have been brought in and we are counting people out and in from the end of this year. It was a policy that the Conservatives scrapped before 1997.' BROWN: 'We've brought together the police and immigration officials and customs officials in one agency, we're doing that already.' REALITY: Police are not part of Labour's 'border force', which is a merger of HMRC, immigration and UK visas staff. The idea of including police was resisted by ministers. It is Conservative policy to merge the police, customs and immigration-staff into a border police force. More homework needed: Nick Clegg and David Cameron were also caught out BROWN: 'Police have to spend 80 per cent of their time now on the streets.' REALITY: The Advertising Standards Agency ruled the Government's claim that 'You can now expect your neighbourhood police to spend at least 80 per cent of their time on the beat in your area' to be misleading. It includes time spent in meetings. Just 14 per cent of all police officers' time is spent on patrol. BROWN: 'The important thing is that we are doing the right thing by our troops and that's why we've increased the spendingon equipment dramatically over these last few years.' REALITY: Figures from the Ministry of Defence show that the defence budget fell year-on-year in real terms on four occasions since 1997. The other two party leaders were also caught out. CLEGG: 'Young men going to prison now on short-term sentences come out and nine out of ten of them re-offend so we're actually producing more crime than cutting it.' REALITY: Mr Clegg's statistics are wrong. The re-offending rate for men on short prison sentences is 60 per cent. By inflating the figure, Mr Clegg strengthened his case for giving community service instead of jail terms less than six months. CAMERON: 'Money could be saved to get the police on the front line. The Metropolitan Police have 400 uniformed officers in their Human Resources department.' REALITY: Most of the officers referred to by Mr Cameron are involved in training of new officers, PCSOs and driving school teaching. The Met says it has eight officers in 'Positive Action, recruitment, Community Engagement, Duties and other areas of HR work'. When during the leaders' debate David Cameron outlined Tory plans to widen access to cancer drugs available in Europe but not the UK he illustrated his point by citing constituent Clive Stone's long battle with the NHS to get life-extending treatments. Mr Stone was diagnosed with terminal kidney cancer in 2007. The best hope for prolonging the retired bank manager's life was the drug Sutent, which was banned by the government's drug rationing body NICE because it was too expensive. Partly due to his vigorous campaigning along with other terminal cancer patients, that drug was made available on the NHS last February. Mr Stone, who lives in Witney, Oxfordshire, said: 'I am apolitical, and always try and go for the party with the best policies. What Mr Cameron wants to do will save lives so I'll be voting for that, although I may not be around to see the result.'Revealed: The truth behind Brown's bogus statistics
'This will save lives'
Saturday, 17 April 2010
Last updated at 1:44 AM on 17th April 2010
REALITY: Labour scrapped embarkation controls - counting people in and out of the country - for non-EU nations in
2008. The Tories stopped counting EU journeys in 1994, in line with Britain's obligations as an EU member.
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