Conservative Party claims that Labour has pledged £90 billion worth of unfunded spending commitments are unreliable  

3 Mar 2023 | Full Fact's weekly news
View in your browser ([link removed])
FACT CHECK
Conservatives repeat an unreliable estimate about Labour’s policy costs
On Monday, Conservative Party Chairman, Greg Hands, was quoted as saying Labour’s economic plans included £90 billion in “unfunded spending”.

This £90 billion figure has been doing the rounds in the Conservative Party for a while. It was referenced by Rishi Sunak in January, repeated by foreign secretary James Cleverly, and was also the subject of a video, tweet and web page published by the Conservative Party last month. The Conservatives’ online material suggested that “Labour’s spending commitments would leave a “£90 billion black hole” in public finances”.

It’s important that politicians and political parties are prepared to publicly back up what they say with evidence. The Conservative Party did provide us with detail on its calculations, telling Full Fact that the £90 billion figure is based on the Conservatives’ estimate of the total net cost of various policies announced by the Labour Party since 2021.

But this is not a reliable estimate of what a Labour government would actually mean for public finances, because it’s calculated from a mix of annual and one-off costs, it’s unclear if Labour still plans to implement all the policies, and some individual policy costings appear to be out of date.

When politicians and political parties make broad estimates, it’s important they are clear about what calculations they’ve done and the limitations of any figures they quote.

While Labour has insisted that all its manifesto policies will be fully costed and fully funded, it did not respond to repeated queries from Full Fact about various policy costings or whether it still stood by all the previously-announced pledges included in the Conservatives’ estimate, some of which were made before its “fully funded” commitment. As a result, we’ve not been able to confirm what Labour believes its policies would actually cost.

What are the sums behind the £90bn figure? ([link removed])
FACT CHECK


** Newspapers and health minister understate junior doctors’ pay demand ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
The health minister Maria Caulfield, speaking on BBC Breakfast, incorrectly said that the British Medical Association (BMA) is demanding a 26% pay rise as part of the forthcoming junior doctors’ strike.

This error has also been made by several media outlets.

It is true that the BMA claims that junior doctors’ pay has fallen by about 26% in real terms since 2008-9 (accounting for rising prices), and that it wants the government to restore their pay to this level.

If this happened, however, it would not amount to a 26% rise from today’s pay level, as many claimed. As the BMA has also noted, it would be more like 35%.

The BMA made its estimates using the RPI measure of inflation. This measure has been criticised by some economic experts, who suggest it may not lead to accurate figures, although it is supported by many unions, and some other experts have said that alternative measures have weaknesses when it comes to measuring consumer price inflation.

The Nuffield Trust, a health think tank, used the different CPIH measure of inflation to calculate that junior doctors have experienced a roughly 14% fall in their pay since 2010.

We’re not sure where the claim that junior doctors are asking for a 26% pay rise came from.

Did confusion around percentages lead to this claim? ([link removed])
HIRING

We're recruiting for a new Senior Political Journalist ([link removed]) .

Help us tackle misleading claims from politicians at a crucial time, as we prepare for the next general election.

The role is remote-first, with an office available in central London, and offers a salary of £36,700-£41,700 depending on experience.

Applications close on 13 March.
Apply now ([link removed])
FACT CHECK


** Kate Shemirani makes several false claims about childhood vaccines ([link removed])
------------------------------------------------------------
A former nurse and campaigner against vaccines, Kate Shemirani, has made false claims about vaccines on social media. We’ve checked several false claims about the Covid-19 vaccines by Ms Shemirani before.

Ms Shemirani claimed that no vaccine has ever been proven safe or effective, and that no two vaccines have ever been tested together for their efficacy. She also suggested that children can now expect to receive “almost 100 vaccines on the Recommended schedule.” These claims are all false.

Claims like these are part of a wider problem with misinformation about vaccines. Bad information about vaccines could influence the decisions people make about their health, and false claims about Covid-19 vaccines may have contributed to reduced uptake in certain communities.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)–which licences vaccines for use in the UK–told Full Fact that no vaccine would be approved in the UK unless it met stringent standards for safety, quality and effectiveness.

Find out why these claims are false ([link removed])
MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
* Zelenskyy’s ‘body double’ is really his head of security ([link removed])
* Mark on Joe Biden’s forehead during Poland trip isn’t a ‘bruise’ ([link removed])
* ‘Free food box’ offer on Facebook is nothing to do with Aldi ([link removed])

Read our latest fact checks ([link removed])
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.
[link removed] Share ([link removed])
[link removed] https%3A%2F%2Ffullfact.org%2Feconomy%2Flabour-90-billion-black-hole%2F Tweet ([link removed] https%3A%2F%2Ffullfact.org%2Feconomy%2Flabour-90-billion-black-hole%2F)
[link removed] Forward ([link removed])
[link removed] Share ([link removed])
All the best,
Team Full Fact

============================================================
** Follow us ([link removed])
** Donate ([link removed])
** Like us ([link removed])
** Follow us ([link removed])
Have any questions or feedback? Please ** get in touch via our contact form ([link removed])
. We do not respond to direct replies to this email address.

Find out ** how Full Fact is funded ([link removed])
.

Copyright © Full Fact 2023 - All rights reserved

A registered charity (no. 1158683) and a non-profit company (no. 6975984) limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales.

Our mailing address is:
17 Oval Way, London, SE11 5RR

We use Mailchimp to send you our emails and to see which articles are most popular. ** Read our privacy policy ([link removed])
or ** Mailchimp's privacy policy ([link removed])

** unsubscribe from this list ([link removed])
** update subscription preferences ([link removed])