CLAIMS by Labour leader Ed Miliband that the Coalition government boosted this month's rail fare increases by allowing train operators to bring back the 'flex' -- and increase some fares by as much as 11 per cent -- have been challenged by the publication of a legal agreement which limited the suspension of the flex to just a year. 

Mr Miliband had accused the Government of reversing the policy of Labour's last transport secretary -- Andrew Adonis -- who restrained rises to RPI+1 per cent in January 2010 by suspending the flex. Following the election, it returned in January 2011 and was applied again this year.

Under the flex, operators were able this year to increase selected regulated fares by as much as another 5 per cent, although other fares had to be reduced or at least left unchanged in order to maintain an average increase of 6 per cent.

During Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons yesterday, Mr Cameron responded to a question from Mr Miliband about rail fare increases by saying that the flex had been introduced by the last Labour government.

Mr Miliband replied: "The Prime Minister is wrong. The last Labour Government stopped them doing that, and this Prime Minister, when he came to office, reversed that policy, which we introduced. That is why the companies are able to rig the fares."

But the Conservatives have since discovered the text of an agreement between the DfT and South West Trains which includes the words: 'From 00.00 on 1 January 2011 [the decision to end the rail fares ‘flex’] shall be reversed'. The Party added that such an agreement 'must have been replicated' for the other operators.

Mr Miliband should now withdraw his claim and apologise to MPs, said Conservative Party Co-Chair Baroness Warsi.

She added: ""Ed Miliband must have known that Ministers he sat in Government with had signed an agreement with the rail companies that explicitly reversed the changes it made on 1 January 2011. 

"Now that the evidence is there in black and white for all to see, Ed Miliband should correct the record and apologise to Parliament.

"Either he was misleading the House or he simply didn’t do his homework."