Police attack Tories over ‘misleading' use of data on violent crime

David Cameron faced a fresh "airbrushing" row today after police chiefs criticised the Tory party's misuse of statistics on violent crime.

Shadow home secretary Chris Grayling came under fire from senior officers and even a Tory think tank for claiming that the crime rate had soared across the country.

In statistics sent to every Tory election candidate in England and Wales, the Conservatives compared figures on "violence against the person" over the past decade, claiming a rise of 256 per cent in some areas.

But police say the rise is largely attributable to a change in the way the figures are collected, rather than any actual increase.

Police in Milton Keynes warned that the figures include "everything from public order offences, to harassment, to allowing a dog to be out of control in a public place".

Before 2002, it was up to police officers to decide if an incident was recorded as a violent crime After 2002, they were obliged to record all incidents as violent crimes if the alleged victim said so.

One force described the use of the statistics as "extremely misleading", and the Association of Chief Police Officers complained that the key caveat about the recording change needed to be made clear.

Former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, who heads the Centre for Social Justice think tank, has written to the BBC to state it would be inaccurate to compare pre-2002 figures with post-2002 figures.

Mr Grayling today insisted he was simply using the Home Office's own figures and said that there were still year-on-year increases.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Any way you come to dice the official statistics, violent crime is going up."

Home Secretary Alan Johnson said Mr Cameron and Mr Grayling were now guilty of using "dodgy statistics to mislead the public about crime".