22 November 2019 | Live election updates
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Tonight saw BBC Question Time audience members quiz Jeremy Corbyn, Nicola Sturgeon, Jo Swinson and Boris Johnson, in the election’s latest live debate.

Here's a summary of the key claims (in order of appearance):


** Jeremy Corbyn
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Jeremy Corbyn said: “This will be a trade deal with Europe or remaining in the EU, that will be the choice that we put before the British people within six months.”

This is not Labour’s position. Labour’s proposal is not to negotiate a trade deal with the EU before the referendum (which they have promised within six months of being elected). They propose to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement, and the non-binding political declaration on the future trade relationship between the EU and the UK, but this is not the same as negotiating a trade deal.

It’s possible that Mr. Corbyn simply misspoke when he said “trade deal”, but subsequent comments that “any other option will require years of negotiations” add to the confusion.

If Leave were to win the referendum on Labour’s renegotiated withdrawal agreement, the UK would still need to negotiate its new relationship. We don’t have enough details on what Labour’s Leave deal would mean to know how long it would take to negotiate that, but there is no realistic prospect of such a deal being in place immediately after a second referendum result.


** Nicola Sturgeon
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Nicola Sturgeon was challenged about Scotland’s high budget deficit, after an audience member pointed out it would need to bring its deficit down to levels acceptable to the EU if it wanted to join. She argued that “that is a deficit that has been accrued under the Westminster system of government”.

Independent experts have said it’s unlikely that an independent Scotland would face a lower deficit, and point out that it would need to take action to reduce its deficit through lower spending or higher taxes.

Scotland does have some control over its own deficit at the moment, as it has powers to raise some taxes on its own. But one of the main reasons it’s so high is because public spending per person is higher in Scotland than the UK average.

The Scottish government has previously put forward some reasons why, including its low population density and greater need for certain public services.


** Jo Swinson
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Jo Swinson claimed that as a result of leaving the EU “we are going to be poorer, people are going to lose their jobs, there will be less money for our NHS.”

None of these statements is flatly incorrect, but they all need some clarification.

On the question of being poorer, it’s important to understand that expert forecasts don’t expect the UK to be poorer than we are now. Rather, they estimate that the UK economy would grow by less in a Brexit deal scenario, compared to a scenario where we remain in the EU. These are only modelled estimates though, so they contain quite a lot of uncertainty.

Whether Brexit means “less money for the NHS” really depends on how the government of the day chooses to manage its accounts. For example, while the Lib Dems expect the government to have £50 billion more to spend over five years in a remain scenario, they don’t plan to spend most of that “bonus” on the NHS.

As for the questions of job losses, none of the recent forecasts of Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal have addressed the issue in detail. It seems likely that some companies would pull out of the UK—at least in part—in a Brexit scenario, leading to job losses, but we don’t have a clear picture of what would happen to employment overall.


** Boris Johnson
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Boris Johnson was asked about his plans for the NHS and challenged Fiona Bruce’s comment that he planned to upgrade six hospitals by saying “no, it’s building six new ones.”

Fiona Bruce was right and Boris Johnson was wrong to correct her. The government plans to initially upgrade six hospitals. Some of these involve completely replacing a hospital, but to suggest, as Mr Johnson did that these are “new” gives the incorrect impression that these are new hospitals where none previously existed.

Boris Johnson also said it was giving the biggest ever cash boost to the NHS. This is incorrect.

Accounting for inflation, the government has pledged about £20.5 billion between 2018/19 and 2023/24. Between 2004/05 and 2009/10, for example, the real terms increase was higher at £24 billion.
Get a round up of their claims in more detail on our live blog.

Full analysis here ([link removed])


** Also this week...
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We fact checked the manifestos as they were released, publishing analysis for both the Labour ([link removed]) and Liberal Democrats ([link removed]) within hours of their publication. We also fact checked the Greens’ claims ([link removed]) on how hot the UK has been this year and how many people take flights, and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage’s claims on corporation tax ([link removed]) .

Our automated fact checking technology has identified thousands of claims across the manifestos. We’ll continue to comb through the detail.

We’re also expecting the Conservatives’ policy plans to be released soon.
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