Continuing the discussion from Boris Johnson issued with THIRD warning from stats watchdog over making false claims:
The former Brexit minister said he wished Mr Johnson “would not say things like that which are obviously not true” in reference to a claim made by the PM that there are more people in work now than before the pandemic.
Speaking at an event hosted by the UK in a Changing Europe think tank this morning, Lord Frost said: “I wish he would not say things like that which are obviously not true, making factually incorrect statements. But in the end it’s for the Prime Minister’s own party and MPs to decide is that how they want to do things or is it not.”
The UK Statistics Authority has previously criticised Mr Johnson for making the employment claim.
Sir David Norgrove, the chairman of the organisation, wrote to Mr Johnson in February and said the claim was “wrong” as he warned against the “selective use of data”.
He said the “increase in the number of people who are on payrolls is more than offset by the reduction in the number of people who are self-employed” and so overall “the number of people in work is estimated to be around 600,000 fewer than at the start of the pandemic”.
Downing Street said at lunchtime that Mr Johnson had recently made clear that he was referring specifically to the number of employees on payrolls rather than overall employment.
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman said: “I would point to what he said in Parliament yesterday. He is referring to the number of people who are on payroll which is higher now than it was before the pandemic. I think he has made that clear in the House on a couple of occasions.”
BJ’s “reference” is, apparently, still not clear to others, though … 