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Labour has reported the Chancellor to the statistics watchdog after he wrongly claimed that school spending is going up.

In his Spring Statement Philip Hammond repeated claims made by the Education Secretary which had already led to a formal rebuke and retraction.

Last week Damian Hinds was forced into an embarrassing u-turn after he was rapped by the official statistics watchdog after he claimed that school spending is going up when it is in fact frozen.

Hammond told Labour MPs at the Spring Statement that “School budgets are increasing per pupil in real terms” and that “every school will receive a cash increase”.

He went on to describe the latter as a “guarantee that every school would receive a cash-terms increase - that guarantee stands today”.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

Labour’s shadow education secretary Angela Rayner told the Mirror she has referred the Chancellor to Britain’s statistics watchdog.

When she challenged Mr Hinds to apologise in the Commons on Monday, the education secretary admitted that he “should have and could have been more precise”.

But he appeared to repeat the claim that “real terms funding is increasing”, despite having clarified moments before that funding was simply being “maintained”, not increased, in real terms.

The Department for Education had already admitted that the Secretary of State’s claim that there was an increase in real-terms funding per pupil was an “error”, and he was embarrassingly forced to ‘correct the record’.

The UK Statistics Authority also ruled that it was “too strong” to claim that every school will see a cash increase, stating that that it was more accurate to say that each school “could” receive an increase.

This is because the Government’s formula allows for a cut in per pupil funding of up to 1.5% once local authorities have allocated the money, meaning individual schools still face cash cuts.

The revelations are particularly embarrassing as the Chancellor’s gaffe came on the same day that Ministers had criticised the Children’s Society for publishing research showing that up to a million children in poverty would lose their free school meals under government plans.

(Image: Barcroft Media)

Hinds had responded to Rayner citing the research by saying “the mere repetition of a falsehood does not make it a fact”.

Rayner has written to the UK Statistics Authority raising the conduct of ministers in continuing to repeat claims that had been found to be false.

She said: “This Government has cut funding to our schools for the first time in decades, yet they have the audacity to pretend that funding is increasing.

“The Education Secretary is clearly not the only member of the Government who seems to need reminding that the mere repetition of a falsehood does not turn it into the truth.

“Only the next Labour Government will provide our schools with the investment in school spending they need, and increase per pupil funding in real terms.”