WILTSHIRE'S Tory police chief attacked a rival political party for publishing "alarmist" articles — despite accepting they were based on his own force's inaccurate figures.

Conservative police and crime commissioner Angus Macpherson publicly lashed out at the Liberal Democrats in Salisbury and the Till Valley for figures published in a party-political newsletter.

He said the stats - which showed a 500 per cent rise in serious crimes against women in Wiltshire since 2012 - were "wrong" and did not "do justice" to the work of Wiltshire Police.

The Journal pointed out that the figures had been supplied directly by Wiltshire Police to another newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act.

When they were published in the Swindon Advertiser, the police took credit for the rise, putting it down to improved crime recording and women being more confident in coming forward.

But when the same figures were repeated in local election material from a rival party, the Tory PCC hit out, saying public confidence in the force was "not helped by inaccurate statistics being published in some election leaflets".

When informed that the source of the "inaccurate" data was his own police force, Mr Macpherson issued an apology for the "unfortunate" and "regrettable" error, which resulted in a "skewed picture ... wrongly suggesting a far greater increase than had actually occurred".

He accepted that some newspapers had published stories based on the force's own inaccurate figures "in good faith".

The actual increase in sexual and violent crimes against women between 2012 and 2016 was 107 per cent, the force said, adding that this was due to "increased confidence by victims to report and improved data recording".

In his initial challenge to the Lib Dems, Mr Macpherson said he tried not to get involved in party politics, but: "It has come to my attention that there is a local election leaflet circulating in the south of the county which apparently asserts that there has been a 500 per cent increase in serious crimes against women over the past five years in Wiltshire.

"This figure is wrong and does not do justice to the work of Wiltshire Police."

Even after accepting the force's blunder, Mr Macpherson still attacked the party, saying confidence in the police was not helped by “alarmist articles in political newsletters”.

One Tory source said the situation was "extraordinary".