Barely a day goes by when our Prime Minister or his Government don’t lie or mislead the public and I’m not the only one who has had enough.

Back in July I was asked to leave Parliament for calling the Prime Minister a liar. It was difficult to stand up alone and say something, but I’m glad I did. 

Months later and I’m pleased to see that the Prime Minister and his Government are finally being criticised for his behaviour more and more from all sides of the House, including his own.

To be fair, keeping track of inaccurate statements made by Johnson could be an Olympic sport. But to be helpful ahead of the 12 Days of Christmas, I have compiled a list of 12 of his most egregious examples.

One – Downing Street Christmas party

We have heard numerous accounts of parties held in Downing Street and Tory HQ during times the country was subject to strict Covid measures. 

The Prime Minister told the House of Commons that ‘all guidance was followed completely in Number 10’.

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Fast forward to the famous video of Allegra Stratton laughing and joking about the party and the Prime Minister being the quiz master at another virtual party.  

The truth is, they have been found out and the rule-makers have shown themselves to be rule-breakers.

If you don’t even know a party is happening in your own house, how can you be expected to run the country? The government has taken us for fools for the last time.

Two – Downing Street renovations 

Tories fined £17,800 over Number 11 flat refurbishment

The Electoral Commission found that the Conservative Party failed to ‘fully report’ a donation of £67,800 – the majority of which was connected to the refurbishment of the 11 Downing Street flat where Boris Johnson lives with his wife Carrie.

Read more here

Following controversy surrounding the renovations of the Downing Street flat, the ministerial standards adviser, Lord Geidt, said Johnson had told him that he knew nothing about who made payments towards the renovation of his Downing Street flat until February 2021.

However, when you dig a little deeper, the Electoral Commission says in its report that Johnson in fact used WhatsApp to contact Lord Brownlow in November 2020 asking for more cash for the refurbishment. All sounds very dodgy doesn’t it?

Three – Misleading the Queen

Back in 2019, when he was trying to push through his Brexit deal, the Prime Minister made the decision to close down – or ‘prorogue’ – Parliament. Johnson claimed that he did not suspend Parliament to stop MPs scrutinising his Brexit deal. 

The Supreme Court ruled against him. It said the decision to prorogue Parliament was unlawful because it had ‘the effect of frustrating or preventing the ability of Parliament to carry out its constitutional functions without reasonable justification’. 

It further stated the privy council’s decision to ask the Queen to suspend Parliament was also ‘unlawful, void and of no effect and should be quashed’. In a separate case, the inner house of the Scottish court of sessions concluded that his advice to the Queen was motivated by the ‘improper purpose’ of ‘stymying’ Parliament. 

Johnson has been found not to have been honest with the Queen about his intentions. If he can mislead the Queen, lying to the country is no big deal. 

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Four – TfL funding crisis

Last year the Prime Minister told the House of Commons that Sadiq Khan ‘blew TFL’s finances’. Let’s be clear, Transport for London is currently going through a funding crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic; it lost 95% its fares at the outset of the pandemic.

A report from the London Assembly in September last year showed that TfL had made almost £1bn of savings prior to the pandemic, was on track to reduce its operating deficit for the fourth consecutive year, and built up cash reserves of more than £2bn.  

So, for the Prime Minister to make out that the Mayor of London is the cause of financial trouble is completely and utterly false – and he knows it. He’s playing a dangerous game with London transport and it’s clear Boris Johnson and the Tories are no friends of London.  

Letting TfL fall into crisis proves Boris Johnson really does not care about Londoners

‘It is also becoming more and more evident that Boris Johnson doesn’t care about much besides winning, and if that means TfL’s funding is cut so that we lose bus services, lose more options of safe travel, or if the Bakerloo line, which goes through my constituency in Brent is closed down, then it’s all part of the Tories’ plan.

‘If that results in Londoners being so upset that they blame the Labour Mayor of London and not the Government then so be it. “Job done” Johnson will say. But I say absolutely no way should we allow the Tories led by the liar Boris Johnson to get away with it.’

Read Dawn’s column on the TfL crisis here

Five – Care home testing

One of the biggest failures during the pandemic by this Government was what happened with our care homes. 

In May 2020 Johnson said: ‘We had a system of testing people going into care homes.’ However, testing of discharges from hospitals into care homes was not introduced until April 15 2020.

The finding of the House of Commons Health and Social Care, and Science and Technology Committees report was: ‘In order to free acute hospital beds in anticipation of the first wave of the pandemic, NHS providers were instructed to urgently discharge all medically fit patients as soon as it was clinically safe to do so, and care home residents were not tested on their discharge from hospital.’

He lied and people died.  

Six – Families living in poverty 

At Prime Minister’s Questions in June last year, Johnson said: ‘Absolute poverty and relative poverty have both declined under this Government and there are hundreds of thousands — I think 400,000 — fewer families living in poverty now than there were in 2010.’

The Office for Statistics Regulation confirmed the statement made on 17 June was incorrect.

Ignoring the most vulnerable people in society is a sign of bad character.

Seven – Track and Trace

Whenever the Government says ‘world beating’, beware, as what follows is normally wrong. In June last year the Prime Minister said that ‘no country currently has a functioning track and trace app.’

As a member of the Science and Technology Committee, I knew this to be false, and a desperate attempt to cover for their failings in setting up a functioning track and trace system, which is so vital.  

Germany, France, Australia, Singapore and Latvia, had in fact already launched apps at the time of Johnson’s statement. 

Eight – Economy under the Tories 

When speaking about the UK economy in January last year, Johnson told Parliament that: ‘The economy, under this Conservative Government, has grown by 73%.’

As journalist Peter Stefanovic pointed out in his viral video, the economy has in fact grown by roughly this level since 1990 – not since 2010. During which there have been not just Conservative, but Labour governments, too.

Nine – Covid contracts

Speaking about Covid contracts that had not been published, Johnson told MPs they were ‘on the record for everyone to see’. However, the High Court later confirmed 100 contracts had yet to be revealed at the time the PM made his comments.  

The National Audit Office also issued a report in November 2020 evaluating contracts during the early stages of the pandemic, and said: ‘We also found specific examples where there is insufficient documentation on key decisions, or how risks such as perceived or actual conflicts of interest have been identified or managed.’

Matt Hancock acted unlawfully over Covid contracts, judge rules

The Government has awarded contracts for things like manufacturing PPE, Covid 19 testing and Test and Trace during the pandemic.

Opposition politicians have accused ministers of running a ‘chumocracy’ with contracts, with deals often given to people with family or business links to those in power.

Read more here

Ten – Climate change

On climate change, Johnson has said: ‘We have cut CO2 emissions in this country since 2010 on 1990 levels by 42%.’ 

But CO2 emissions fell by 39% between 1990 and 2018 – not from 2010. Again, Johnson is attempting to mislead people about the Conservatives’ record. 

It’s hard work trying to keep track while the government constantly gaslights the public.  

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Eleven – Lying to employers

Johnson is so bad at lying that he’s been sacked multiple times for doing it.  

In 2004 he was sacked by Michael Howard from his shadow post for lying about his extramarital affair. He was also sacked in the late 1980s by the Times newspaper for allegedly inventing a quote.

Twelve – 350m a week 

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Most people won’t need reminding of this from the Brexit campaign – and the promised ‘extra £350m per week’ to the NHS certainly never happened.

The UK Statistics Authority called it a ‘misleading’ gross figure. This whopper should have served as a stark warning about his dishonesty.  

– The End –

In summary, the Prime Minister has lied to the House of Commons and lied to the nation time and time again. 

The ministerial code states that ministers who knowingly mislead the House of Commons are expected to tender their resignation. However, regrettably it’s the Liar-in-Chief himself who is responsible for said code, which makes no sense.

That’s why my campaign, backed by more than 100 MPs, calls for the House of Commons and Standards Committee to take control of the ministerial code from the Prime Minister. If your MP hasn’t yet signed it, readers can encourage them to do so.  

Taking control of the ministerial code is an absolutely vital step if we are to strengthen our democracy – and not allow it to be eroded for good.

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