Darling accused of not telling ‘whole truth’

CONSERVATIVES yesterday accused Alistair Darling of failing to tell “the whole truth” about the loss of confidential child benefit data, and demanded an emergency statement from the Chancellor.

Senior ministers were forced to defend the Government’s competence, as polls suggested blunders, culminating in the loss of 25 million people’s data, have wiped out its reputation for being able to handle a crisis.

Police yesterday searched premises of courier company TNT for a package containing two discs carrying personal details of every child benefit claimant in Britain.

Opposition parties questioned Mr Darling’s assurance, that they went missing solely due to the actions of a junior Revenue and Customs official who breached procedures by sending them to the London headquarters of the National Audit Office (NAO) by internal mail operated by TNT.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said it was dishonourable” to try to pin the blame on a single member of staff, when NAO emails suggested more senior officials were aware of the arrangement.