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Jul 23, 2021 7 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Dawn Butler MP accused Boris Johnson of lying yesterday, and was asked to leave the House of Commons.

We do not know if the PM was ‘lying’. But the majority of Mr Johnson’s claims that Ms Butler mentioned were either false or misleading.

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fullfact.org/news/dawn-butl…
Claim 1️⃣

Ms Butler is correct to say this claim is false.

The 73% figure describes growth since 1990, not since 2010. This means it covers a much longer period that also includes 13 years of Labour government.
Claim 2️⃣

Mr Johnson’s government has reintroduced a system in which all student nurses receive a non-repayable grant from the government, but it does not pay their tuition fees on their behalf, which was the system when the old bursary applied.
Claim 3️⃣

Many countries had launched apps that were operational when the PM was speaking.

However, at the time it was not yet clear whether any of their technological approaches were effective, or whether they’d been downloaded widely enough to reduce the spread of Covid.
Claim 4️⃣

This is a misleading way to measure it.

If you account for inflation, which is the fairest way to compare sums of money across time, then the ‘real terms’ value of the spending increase was £20.5 billion - which is not a record.
Claim 5️⃣

Vaccination is highly effective against the worst effects of Covid-19, but it is not perfectly effective.

It’s not right to say that the link has been completely “severed” between infection and serious disease or death, although it has certainly been severely weakened.
There are rules about "unparliamentary language".

And there is also the Ministerial Code.

Any Minister that has not given accurate or truthful information to Parliament is obliged to correct this at the earliest opportunity.

We look forward to hearing from the PM on 6 Sep.

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More from @FullFact

May 1
At #PMQs today, Rishi Sunak said “this week we’re cutting taxes by £900 for everyone in work”.

This isn’t correct, for at least two reasons. (1/5)
The £900 figure refers to the combined impact of *two* reductions in National Insurance, each of two percentage points. One was introduced in April, but the other came into effect in January. (2/5)
It’s also not true that *everyone* will see a £900 tax cut.

Each NI reduction is worth around £450 for someone on the average salary of £35,400—but some will save less and others more. (3/5)
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Dec 13, 2023
At #PMQs, Rishi Sunak said there are “hundreds of thousands fewer children in poverty today thanks to this government”.

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(1/4)
There are different measures of poverty.

The number of children in *absolute* poverty after housing costs has fallen from 3.7m in 2009/10 to 3.3m in 2021/22.

The equivalent figures before housing costs also show a drop, from 2.5m to 2.2m. (2/4)
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Nov 15, 2023
At #PMQs Rishi Sunak claimed Labour’s immigration plan involves “a cosy deal with the EU which would see the UK accept 100,000 illegal migrants”.

As we’ve previously explained, this figure is a Conservative party estimate which is not reliable. (1/4)
buff.ly/3FW71MR
The estimate makes a number of assumptions about a potential future returns deal with the EU, and appears to misinterpret a recent EU agreement on relocating some asylum seekers across the bloc. (2/4)
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Nov 8, 2023
Yesterday Rishi Sunak said in Parliament that Sir Keir Starmer wants to open the UK’s borders to “100,000 additional EU migrants every single year”.

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buff.ly/49p5tZ9
The estimate Mr Sunak seemed to be referring to makes several assumptions and appears to misinterpret a recent EU agreement on relocating some asylum seekers across the bloc. (2/4)
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Nov 6, 2023
📢 NEW REPORT: Today, we have released a report tracking the misrepresentation of data across at least three government departments.
Read the report here: 🧵 (1/4) fullfact.org/media/uploads/…
Image
Our report examines how if data is presented without context or caveats, if it is described incorrectly, or if data is given too much weight, it can give an incomplete or misleading picture. (2/4)
In some cases this is simply done in error, and is understandable in a one-off scenario. But, when this happens repeatedly, even after the error has been pointed out, then this appears to be being done in pursuit of political advantage. (3/4)
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Mar 23, 2023
2022 was a damaging year for standards in public debate.

The latest Full Fact Report is out today, and sets out how politicians, the media and others can improve trust and safeguard UK democracy ahead of the next election.

📕Read the report 👉 fullfact.org/about/policy/r…
In 2022:

🔴As many as 50 MPs, including two Prime Ministers, Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet Ministers, failed to correct false, unevidenced or misleading claims, despite our repeated calls for them to do so
🔴The statistics regulator had to write to the UK Government at least 10 times to challenge it on its use of statistics or other data
Read 7 tweets

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