Boris Johnson's first 2020 interview

This week the Prime Minister took part in his first televised interview since winning the election in December. 

He made a number of claims which we have written about before, plus a few new ones:

NHS cash boost

Mr Johnson claimed that the NHS will be receiving £34 billion, the biggest ever cash injection. 

£34 billion is the biggest spending increase in cash terms. But accounting for inflation (a more meaningful way to look at the numbers) the figure is £20.5 billion—the increase between 2004/5 and 2009/10 was even larger than this. We covered this in more detail in the run up to the election.

New nurses 

References were made to the Conservatives’ election manifesto pledge of 50,000 more nurses in the NHS in England by 2024/25, and 6,000 more GPs. 

Whether these claims are accurate will ultimately depend on whether the targets are met. The proposed increase in nurses won’t all be ‘new’ staff, as we wrote about before.

Hospitals

Mr Johnson claimed that the government will be taking away hospital parking charges for patients. This was announced in December, and is expected to happen from April 2020.

He also repeated an election claim that the government will build 40 new hospitals, and upgrade 20.

In October, the government announced plans to build “40 new hospitals” across England. But only six have been given the money to upgrade their buildings within the next five years—the rest will get money towards developing plans, but not to begin any building work yet.

The plan for 20 hospitals to be upgraded was announced in July last year and is a separate policy.

Police Officers

Mr Johnson claimed that his government is putting 20,000 more police on the streets. Again, the accuracy of this depends on whether the target is met. We do know that this would return the number of police officers in England and Wales to almost, but not quite, the total in 2010.

He also made reference to the Home Office’s announcement this week that it would allow police in England and Wales to bid for part of a fund to equip their force with more Tasers. It says that final funding allocations will be announced in February.

National living wage

Mr Johnson claimed that the government will be lifting the living wage by the biggest ever amount. 

The “national living wage” (the government’s minimum wage for anyone aged 25 and over) will rise from £8.21 to £8.72 in April. That’s the largest increase (not adjusting for inflation) since the national living wage was put in place in 2016.