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Last week, we wrote to you about Suella Braverman’s misleading claim that “the asylum initial decision backlog is down by 17,000”.
It’s been over a week since we asked the Home Secretary to correct the record.
On Monday, we asked supporters of our campaign for honesty in politics to write to the Home Secretary and ask that she correct the record, in keeping with the Ministerial Code. So far, more than 1,500 people have written to the Home Secretary, but she has not responded.
On the same day, Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, also asked Suella Braverman to correct the record on this claim, highlighting “the importance of the ministerial code and correcting any errors at the first opportunity”. Ms Braverman did not take this opportunity to correct the record.
Government ministers owe the public accurate and responsible information when talking about important issues.
Add your voice to make sure the Home Secretary hears our calls.
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FACT CHECK
Conservative peer Lord Cruddas, president of the Conservative Democratic Organisation, made incorrect claims on Twitter relating to the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s election record. After being contacted by Full Fact, he agreed the tweet was not correct and has now tweeted a correction.
The original post, published on 11 June 2023, said: “Fact, @borisjohnson has never lost a campaign or election. 2019 General Election biggest majority in over 44 years. 2016 Brexit referendum and two London mayoral elections. He is a winning machine who can connect to voters. Hasta La vista !”
This is incorrect.
Mr Johnson first stood for parliament in 1997, for the Clwyd South seat in North Wales. He lost to Labour’s Martyn Jones, having received just over 9,000 votes compared to nearly 23,000 for Mr Jones.
It is true that Mr Johnson won two London mayoral elections, and helped lead the successful ‘Leave’ campaign during the 2016 Brexit referendum.
But while Boris Johnson led the Conservatives to victory in the 2019 general election with an 80 seat majority, Margaret Thatcher had achieved an even larger majority of 144 following the 1983 general election, 40 years ago.
In addition, Labour’s majority after the 1997 election was significantly larger at 179 seats and, although this fell to 167 seats after the 2001 election, this was still more than double the majority achieved by Mr Johnson.
If a member of the House of Lords makes a false or misleading claim on social media, they should correct this quickly on the same platform where the claim was made. We are grateful that Lord Cruddas has done so in this case.
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SUPPORTER ACTION
During his time at No.10, Boris Johnson repeatedly made false and misleading claims, paving the way for other MPs to do the same. The Privileges Committee noted in their report on Thursday that their inquiry “goes to the very heart of our democracy. Misleading the House is not a technical issue, but a matter of great importance.”
But so far this year, only 5 out of the 29 MPs Full Fact has asked to correct themselves have actually done so.
Current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Labour and Liberal Democrat leaders Keir Starmer and Ed Davey are among those MPs who have yet to correct false or misleading claims after we have asked them.
Add your voice to our calls for honesty in politics.
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FACT CHECK
During an interview on Sky News on Monday 12 June, following former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation as an MP, Labour MP and shadow secretary of state for business and industrial strategy Jonathan Reynolds said that a recall petition succeeds if “ten thousand constituents vote for it”.
This isn’t correct, and Mr Reynolds’ office has since told Full Fact that he misspoke. In order to succeed, a recall petition requires the signatures of 10% of the eligible registered electorate in an MP’s constituency.
A recall petition is a mechanism by which an MP can be forced by voters to vacate their seat, triggering a by-election (which the recalled MP is then allowed to contest).
Inaccurate claims about political processes such as recall petitions have the potential to affect people’s trust in these processes, and could impact how or if they choose to participate. While Mr Reynolds has acknowledged the error, we are not aware of any public correction having been made at the time of writing. He has not responded to our request for a correction regarding this claim.
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FACT CHECK
The Prime Minister recently claimed in a tweet shared by several other ministers that the government is cutting waiting lists in the NHS. This is a general claim that the Conservative party has made before, and it has also appeared as a logo on other official government announcements.
While it's true some specific NHS waiting lists, such as the list of patients waiting more than 18 months for treatment, have fallen, the overall number of cases where someone is waiting for consultant-led elective treatment in England is at a record high.
Full Fact is campaigning for politicians to be clear on what they mean when making claims using official data to describe public services. Otherwise they risk misleading people about the government’s performance—or, in this case, access to the NHS.
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WE'RE HIRING
Help us reach millions of people with good, reliable information. We’re looking for an expert in social media to help us tackle the spread of misleading claims and engage and grow our supporter base.
This is a full time, remote first role, with an office available in Central London and regular team meetings in the office. We are happy to talk about flexible working, including part time.
£36,700-41,700 per annum (plus pension)
Last weekend to apply! Full details on the role and how to apply
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MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
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Stop the spread of bad information
Find these updates useful? We'd be incredibly grateful if you could share our fact checks and help more people access good information.
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All the best,
Team Full Fact
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