Caught in a lie: so much for Sunak’s claim of integrity
PMQs: this might even be the moment, on October 26, when Rishi Sunak uttered the lie.
Rishi Sunak lied to Parliament during his very first Prime Minister’s Questions, according to the verification organisation Full Fact.
Here’s what researchers there have discovered:
“I’m pleased we had a record number of new homes built in the last year” – Rishi Sunak
We’ve been trawling over the data for nearly a week, and can’t find anything to substantiate this claim 🧵👇
— Full Fact (@FullFact) November 2, 2022
That quarterly data only goes back to 1979. Calendar year data goes back to 1946.
There were 37 years where more permanent dwellings were completed in England.
You can see almost twice as many houses were being built each year in the late 60s. pic.twitter.com/huQXZKkT0E
— Full Fact (@FullFact) November 2, 2022
We asked Number 10 to provide the statistics Mr Sunak was referring to, but we were not sent anything that directly substantiates his claim.
We asked experts whether there was any way Mr Sunak’s claim could be true. None could find any data to support ithttps://t.co/UsWl0d9Kai
— Full Fact (@FullFact) November 2, 2022
Sunak’s words were clear, and implied clearly that he had seen information showing that a record number of dwellings had been built.
But no such information exists – or it would have been handed to Full Fact.
He lied.
Deliberately misleading Parliament in such a way is a serious breach of the Ministerial Code.
Boris Johnson is currently facing an investigation of claims that he lied to Parliament, that could lead to him being stripped of his job as an MP.
Sunak’s transgression is not quite as bad – but it is clear that he should be recalled to the Commons to set the record straight and apologise for trying to mislead us all.
And his claims of honesty and integrity now lie in tatters.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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As someone has had to write this then sign off on it then I guess that is some ‘weasel word’ type of way that it is, at least, not, strictly speaking, a lie. He said a “record number” not the highest, he said “record number” but not since when. Could he mean that it’s a “record number” for this government ie since Dec ’19? I could believe that to be true as the figures for the full years would be mostly during COVID lockdowns and could only have gone up in the last full year. But in the sense that most people speak this is a flat-out and very obvious lie. It’s only meant to catch out the unwary and unwise and his quote is halfway round the world before the truth has its trousers on. The Tories love to lie..