Category: #ToryDishonesty

#ToryDishonesty

FactCheck: Boris Johnson’s broken promises as London mayor

From Channel 4 News: In 2009, Boris Johnson promised to end rough sleeping within three years. He said: “It’s scandalous that, in 21st century London, people have to resort to sleeping on the streets, which is why I have pledged to end rough sleeping in the capital by 2012.”

But by his final autumn in office (2015), there were an estimated 940 people sleeping rough in the capital.

Over his tenure, rough sleeping rose by 130 per cent.

Mr Johnson made a number of opaque and downright misleading claims about the strength of the Metropolitan Police while he was mayor of London, which we FactChecked at the time.

At one point he announced: “We are recruiting 5,000 constables over the next three years”, which sounded like a welcome boost to Met police numbers.

He failed to mention that the Met expected to lose 5,000 PCs over three years through natural wastage – all he was promising to do was replace the ones who left.

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Boris Johnson apologises to MPs for failing to declare income in time

From The Guardian: Boris Johnson has offered MPs a “full and unreserved apology” over the late declaration of more than £52,000 in income.

He made the apology to the House of Commons having been told to do so after he repeatedly failed to register payments from his newspaper column and books within the set time limit.

In a report, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, Kathryn Stone, said that the former foreign secretary admitted he had failed to register payments in time on nine occasions in the previous 12 months.

The report recommended that Johnson make an apology to the Commons on a point of order.

Stone said that while the Conservative MP had fully cooperated and promised to address the issue, the amount of money registered late – almost £53,000, or about 70% of his MP’s’ salary – and the number of times it had happened “suggested a lack of attention to the house’s requirements, rather than inadvertent error”.

Under parliamentary rules, MPs are allowed to earn money beyond their official duties but authorities must be notified within 28 days so it can be entered into the register of MPs’ financial interests.

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Theresa May lies on LBC about accusing police of “crying wolf”

From Momentum: Video evidence that Theresa May lied on LBC radio about her past “crying wolf” dismissal of the impact of Tory police cuts.

Liar Liar

Caught red-handed… 😢🐺?

Posted by Momentum on Friday, November 16, 2018

In one letter, Esther McVey misleads us seven times over the DWP’s impact on minorities

From the New Statesman: Esther McVey, the Work and Pensions Secretary who resigned over the Brexit deal, departed in true DWP style: disingenuously.

After her argument against Theresa May’s draft withdrawal agreement, the departing cabinet minister listed her “achievements” at the Department towards the end of her letter.

Let’s take a closer look at these boasts, shall we?

Employment did reach a record high this year. The unemployment rate is at its lowest since the Seventies. Sound good? These figures disguise the increasingly precarious nature of work for British people. Last November, the number of people who did not have enough work, who were on temporary or zero-hours contracts, or who were classed as “self-employed” but actually only working for one employer still remained higher than before the 2008 crash. The latest Office for National Statistics figures show that the number of people aged 16-64 who are not working, not seeking work and not available to work has actually increased, while the number of people in work hasn’t changed since March-May this year.

[Read full column on New Statesman website…]

Squirming Tory minister Damian Hinds cornered on TV over his claims about school funding

From the Daily Mirror: Squirming Tory Cabinet minister Damian Hinds was cornered on live TV today over his claims about the “extra money” going into schools… BBC interviewer Andrew Marr pointed out that “real terms” funding per pupil since 2010 has in fact been cut.

[Read article on Mirror website…]

Department for Education caught adding tuition fees to school funding claims

From BBC News: If you’re a student paying tuition fees, you might be surprised to find that the cost of going to university is being included as “spending” in the government’s defence of its record on school funding.

But when ministers faced accusations of under-funding schools in England, a figure they quoted widely as evidence of high spending has been found to include billions of pounds of university fees being paid by students, rather than only government spending.

School leaders have described this discovery as “shocking and disturbing”.

Last week, more than a thousand head teachers marched on Downing Street, protesting about school funding shortages.

The Department for Education rejected their claims, saying not only were record amounts going into schools but the “OECD has recently confirmed that the UK is the third highest spender on education in the world”.

The claim for world-beating spending was used repeatedly by the DfE, it was published on the department’s website and the Minister for School Standards, Nick Gibb, used the same argument on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, in a debate over school budgets.

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