HOME Secretary Theresa May was attacked yesterday by a former cabinet colleague over her use of “unreliable” statistics to call for tougher restrictions on foreign students coming to Britain.

Ex-universities minister David Willetts yesterday rejected Ms May’s suggestion that 96,000 more students were arriving in the country each year than were leaving.

The Home Office is understood to be using the figure in an attempt to justify proposals which would make places on courses contingent on people demonstrating they have significant independent financial means.

But Mr Willetts — who left the government last year and was last week elevated to the House of Lords — rounded on the Home Secretary’s claim, saying the figure was “not a solid basis for policy.”

“My disagreement I’m afraid is that the particular figures that were being cited … for number of students staying on is very unreliable,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“It is a widely disputed and doubted figure and would not be a solid basis for policy.”

Mr Willetts, dubbed “Two Brains” during his stint as John Major’s paymaster general, said the information came from the International Passenger Survey (IPS) but had been challenged by bodies including the Commons public accounts committee.

“I don’t think it is a reasonable indicator. It is based on a survey — by the time you get down to the number of students — of a few hundred students,” he said.

The former Tory MP said that in some cases people were recorded as students when they arrived but classed as workers when they left.

Other “better and more reliable” research by the Home Office between 2007 and 2012 indicated that just 2 per cent of students failed to comply with their visa requirements, he said.