(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-11-21 21:07

LONDON - The chairman of the Revenue and Customs tax authority (HMRC) Paul Gray has resigned amid reports of data going missing, in another blow for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government as it reels over the Northern Rock crisis.

Chairman of the Revenue and Customs tax authority Paul Gray is seen in an undated handout photo. Gray has resigned amid reports of data going missing, in another blow for Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government as it reels over the Northern Rock crisis. [Agencies]

A spokesman for HMRC said on Tuesday that Gray, who had been in the job for just nine months, had resigned. The spokesman declined further comment but Chancellor Alistair Darling will make a statement on the matter at 3:30 pm.

In a letter to HMRC staff, Gray said, "I am announcing today that I will be standing down as HMRC Chairman as a result of a substantial operational failure in the Department. This is not the way I would have planned to organize my departure from HMRC."

"There has been a big data loss," said a government source who declined to be named. British media reported that child benefit records of seven million families were missing.

Brown's popularity has sunk in the last few weeks and the government is facing heavy criticism over the crisis at Northern Rock, which suffered Britain's first bank run in more than a century in September.

The Treasury is now involved in negotiations to find a buyer for the mortgage lender which still depends on the government for funding.

Gray, a career civil servant and economist, was appointed deputy chairman of HMRC in September 2006 and his position as chief was made permanent in February.

The tax authority has already taken a lot of criticism in recent years for its handling of tax credits and VAT fraud.