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Friend, we all deserve accuracy from our politicians
We need your support to help scrutinise what they say, and push for misleading claims to be corrected.
When it’s never been more needed, can you help the fight for more honesty in public debate?
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FACT CHECK
Boris Johnson recycles online claim about Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile
"He spent most of his time prosecuting journalists and failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile" —Boris Johnson in the Commons on Monday.
The facts: Keir Starmer was head of the Crown Prosecution Service when the decision was made not to prosecute Savile but he was not the reviewing lawyer for the case.
The Prime Minister has since clarified: “I totally understand he had nothing to do personally with those decisions”
We first fact checked this claim in June 2020 after it began spreading on social media. We’re very grateful to everyone who shared our fact check, which has been referenced hundreds of times in the media this week, including by The Guardian, The Independent, The Standard, ITV, Sky and Mail.
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FACT CHECK
Government website make percentage error on National Insurance rise
Government web pages explaining planned increases to National Insurance repeatedly state that contributions will increase by 1.25% from April. In fact, the rise is a 1.25 percentage point increase applied to existing National Insurance rates, not a percentage increase on those rates.
This might sound pedantic, but it makes a big difference to the figures.
Consumer journalist Martin Lewis has also highlighted this on Twitter. Most people will see a 10% increase in the amount of National Insurance they pay after the rise.
If something rises by 1.25% it means it gets 1.25% higher, which could mean a relatively small change. For example, a tax bill of £1,000 would become £1,012.50 if it rose by 1.25%.
However, a tax rate is itself a percentage, and percentages are often said to rise by percentage points—meaning how many steps it rises up the percentage scale.
This could mean a much bigger increase in cash terms. For example, if your tax bill was £1,000 at 12%, a tax of 13.25% (adding the 1.25 percentage point increase) would leave you with an updated payment of £1,104.17.
We have found 10 examples of this error across government websites.
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REPEAT CLAIM ALERT
Boris Johnson repeats false employment claim in Parliament for SIXTH time
Once again, the Prime Minister has told Parliament that there are more people in work now than there were before the pandemic began. In reality, there are 600,000 fewer people in work.
The Ministerial code states: “It is of paramount importance that Ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity."
The PM first made this claim in November, before making it several more times in December, January and now February. The earliest opportunity to correct this statement has long passed.
We know that Number 10 are aware this is inaccurate, as the Office for Statistics Regulation wrote to Downing Street the day before this week’s PMQs, after Full Fact brought these repeat claims to their attention.
The public deserves better than bad information. At the very least, demonstrably and unambiguously false statements in Parliament must be corrected.
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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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