He was Chancellor for ten years and as Prime Minister won plaudits for his action helped save the beleaguered banking system.

But would Gordon Brown’s economic experience, combined with his fondness for quoting statistics see him paint a picture more favourable than the figures really suggested during the final, economic-themed leaders; debate?

Here is what we found:

Help for businesses

Mr Brown claimed that the Government had provided help for 20,000 businesses in the Midlands region under the Time to Pay scheme.

Last month we looked into the figure Mr Brown quoted on this scheme and found the Prime Minister had been double counting when he claimed the scheme had helped 300,000 businesses nationally.

When we contacted HMRC as part of our investigation we were not given a regional breakdown, but will chase them to find out if he has been at it again.

New jobs

Despite the recession, the Prime Minister was keen to point to some of the more positive aspects of his economic legacy. On employment, he stated there were two and a half more people in work now than in 1997.

Broadly speaking this is true, these figures show there were 2.32 million more people in work in the third quarter of 2009 compared with 1997.

However, given that the employment rate in the last quarter before Labour took office was 58.2 per cent in 1997 and only slightly higher at 58.3 at the end of 2009.

Homeowners

Stating that he wanted to boost homeownership, Gordon Brown said that there were one million more homeowners than there were just over ten years ago”,

According to government figures, owner occupied housing has gone up in the last decade, from 16.7 million dwelling in 1997 to 18.5 million in 2007, which while not strictly the same thing points to a rise.

However at the same time it is worth noting that in 2008, government figures showed that home ownership in England fell to a ten year low, so there may be more to Mr Brown’s claim than meets the eye.

Tory tax policy

This week the Conservatives’ proposals for inheritance tax were again cited by Mr Brown as proof that the Tories would help the rich ahead of the poor.

“The biggest beneficiary of the Conservative manifesto is as always the richest estates in the country and not the ordinary hard working people of this country,” the Prime Minister said.

The general theme of Mr Brown’s argument is borne out analysis published this week by the Institute for Fiscal Studies which stated that the Tories tax policies were “somewhat less progressive” than Labour’s in part due to the inheritance tax policy.

However given that the Tories accept some of Labour’s tax plans, the IFS also states “the overall picture would remain broadly progressive.”

Apprenticeships

The figures quoted by Gordon Brown on the growth of apprenticeships under Labour
suggest the Government had “trebled the number of apprenticeships from 70,000 to over 200,000 now”.

The figures on the official website for apprenticeships suggest that the number has doubled rather than trebled and is at 140,000. However it is possible such figures could now be out of date.

Tax credits

Corporation Tax and Capital allowances

Criticised last week for misleading claims about Conservative policies, Gordon Brown was at least on the money this week discussing the Tories’ plans for corporation tax.

He said that the money for the cut would be funded by reducing capital allowances for manufacturing. Indeed this is what George Osborne has said in previous speeches.