Here are 5 things the Prime Minister said that weren’t quite true.
1 ‘The UK government is bringing the West together’
He told the Commons the UK Government “is bringing the West together” to have a “tough” package of sanctions to stop Vladimir Putin from evading Ukraine. But yesterday Mr Johnson told the Commons the UK would only support Nato deployments.
It does seem a far cry from “bringing the West together”.
The Western World usually includes much o the European Union, the United States, Canada and even Australia and New Zealand.
2 Will Boris Johnson publish the Sue Gray report in full?
The Prime Minister told the House, “I will do what I said”, but that does leave space for some wiggle room. He did not explicitly repeat once more in the house that he will publish the report in full.
Last week, the PM’s official spokesman said: “Yes we have committed to publishing it in the House in full.”
The Prime Minister’s spokesman said No10 “won’t publish anything that relates to the work of the police”, but can continue to work on allegations that do not reach the police “threshold”.
However…. it looks like this has already changed.
3 ‘We have the fastest growing economy in the G7’
The PM has repeatedly claimed the UK has the fastest growing economy in the G7. The G7 includes France, Italy, Japan, the US, Italy and Canada.
Figures show the UK’s economy grew the most over the past year, between the third quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2021. And this is because UK GDP fell dramatically during the pandemic when household spending also plummeted.
The UK’s growth actually came fifth out of the seven countries when comparing the third and second quarters. And economists are worried growth could be slow in this first quarter of 2022 because of the cost of living crisis and rising interest rates.
4 Keir Starmer ‘would have taken us back into a lockdown at Christmas’
The Labour leader had always welcomed “additional measures” to curb Omicron rates before Christmas 2021. But he had never called for a lockdown.
Labour had been in favour of new restrictions to stem the Omicron variant from spreading, so long as they come with support packages for schools and businesses.
5 Labour are ‘committed to abolishing Universal Credit’
Last autumn Labour pledged to shake-up the benefits system including Universal Credit. They promised to overhaul the universal credit system by allowing low-income workers to earn more without seeing their welfare payments cut.
Labour also called for the Government to keep the £20-a-week uplift which introduced in April last year in response to the Covid crisis. But the Tories scrapped it, ahead of the cost of living crisis.
It was only under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership did Labour plan to crap universal credit.
BJ and the truth will always be strangers … 