The Conservative party has issued another set of dodgy statistics- this time issuing misleading statistics on the rate of teenage pregnancies. However, the real figures show that teenage pregnancies in the East of England are down since 1997.

The Tories’ recent document claimed: "In the most deprived areas, 54% are likely to fall pregnant before the age of 18, compared to just 19% in the least deprived areas."

The claim was made three different times in a recently launched Tory document.

However, official figures for those areas suggested that the number of under-18 girls who got pregnant was more like 54 per 1,000, or 5.4%, not 54%

And in the East of England, the rate of under-18 conception is in fact down 12.7% since 1997.

Labour’s Deputy Regional Minister for the East of England, Bob Blizzard MP said:

“Labour is determined to keep investing in services and support to lower the rate of teenage pregnancies.

“However, I think people are realising that you can’t trust a word that David Cameron says. These are yet more dodgy figures, coming on top of their misleading figures on violent crime that came out last week.

“Tackling teenage pregnancies is an important and sensitive issue, so for the Tories to release dodgy figures which turn the progress we have had upside down is just plain wrong.

“Across the East of England, the rate of teenage pregnancy has gone down more than 12% since the Tories were in power, and I am determined that it keeps going down.”

Responding to the release of more dodgy statistics from the Tories, Labour’s Families Secretary Ed Balls MP said: 

“These are more dodgy statistics from the Tories, who will stop at nothing to talk Britain down. They are so out of touch with family life in Britain that they believe over half of teenage girls in the poorest areas fall pregnant.   

“How low can David Cameron go? He should immediately withdraw this misleading document which is an insult to communities across our country.   

“David Cameron’s latest deception and airbrushed statistics cannot conceal the fact that the Tories haven’t changed. They are totally out of touch and have nothing to say on the important issue of reducing teenage pregnancies except smears and distortions.”