Brown accused of £21bn 'dodge'

Gordon Brown faced accusations last night that a £21bn "accountancy dodge" to cut the national debt had been "blown apart" by a senior civil servant. The Chancellor, backed by Whitehall statisticians, has said Network Rail's debts should be excluded from Treasury books.

But Alan Beard, head of accountancy at the Department for Transport, said he questioned the assessment, which had been made by Robin Lynch, head of national accounts at the Office of National Statistics. He implied his opinion had been misunderstood.

Adding £21bn to the Government's balance sheets would increase the political and economic pressure on Mr Brown, who was forced to increase borrowing massively in the pre-Budget report on Wednesday. David Laws, a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, said: "Gordon Brown has been caught trying to fiddle his borrowing figures."