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  Economical with the truth?
  
  Cameron `misled public`with cuts and taxes growth claim.
  
  Letter from OBR chief Robert Coote accuses the Prime Minister of misrepresentation over claims that high taxes and cuts don`t hurt growth.
  
  David Cameron was slapped down by his ``own independent fiscal watchdog`` today, provoking a politically charged row over the economic impact of the Coalition's austerity programme.
  
  Robert Chote, the chairman of the Office for Budget Responsibility, wrote to Downing Street to protest that Mr Cameron had misrepresented its view on the reasons for the economy's feeble performance in recent years.
  
  The Treasury was rocked by the dramatic intervention, which follows several rebukes from the UK Statistics Authority for the Government's handling and presentation of official figures on the economy and spending.
  
  
  Mr Chote's letter came after a speech two days ago in which the Prime Minister blamed the economy's anaemic state on factors such as high oil prices and the crisis in the Eurozone.
  
  Mr Cameron denied that Coalition policies were to blame, naming the OBR as support his argument. He said the forecaster was "absolutely clear" that the spending cuts and tax rises pushed through since it came to power in May 2010 were not responsible for Britain slipping into its first double-dip recession since the 1970s.
  
  Mr Cameron said: "They are absolutely clear that the deficit reduction plan is not responsible - in fact, quite the opposite."
  
  But Mr Chote, in unprecedentedly critical comments from the independent watchdog, objected that the OBR had always been very clear austerity measures would serve as a drag on growth.

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