PM makes false statements about Brexit being ‘blocked’ and his record as London mayor

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

Boris Johnson is facing criticism over a series of inaccurate statements made in a flurry of live broadcast interviews during a difficult day of campaigning.

The prime minister was challenged on Friday on subjects as varied as crime, Brexit, the abandoned London garden bridge project and the number of children he has fathered.

Following a relatively low-key start to the Conservative general election campaign, which has mainly involved Johnson being shepherded around carefully stage-managed events, he endured a one-hour grilling from BBC Radio 5 Live listeners, among other engagements.

Johnson appeared uncomfortable on several occasions – not least when, during an interview on BBC One’s Breakfast programme, he was asked how families across the country could relate to him. He eventually answered: “I have not the faintest idea.”

Responding to a Radio 5 Live caller who asked about policies to tackle knife crime, Johnson said an increase in stop-and-search operations when he was London mayor between 2008 and 2016 had allowed 11,000 knives to be taken off the streets.

However, this was a total that included weapons seized through means other than stop and search.

Play Video 1:11 Boris Johnson struggles to say what makes him relatable to voters in BBC interview – video

Boris Johnson takes to the airwaves keen to avoid the truth at all costs | John Crace Read more

He also repeated other questionable claims about crime when he was mayor, ones made repeatedly during the Tory leadership race, including that he had consistently reduced the number of murders in London to fewer than 100 a year.

When the presenter, Rachel Burden, pointed out that this was wrong – it happened once during Johnson’s eight years as mayor, with 94 murders in 2014, rising above 100 the next year – the PM stuck by his claim, saying: “No. Fewer than 100 for several years running.”

On another legacy of his time as mayor, Johnson tried to avoid blame for the cancelled garden bridge project, with losses of more than £50m, saying this was the fault of his Labour successor, Sadiq Khan, for cancelling the scheme.

Khan did withdraw support for the bridge, but as a means to limit public losses on a seemingly doomed plan, championed by Johnson, which had spent enormous sums despite not securing full planning approvals.

On Brexit, Johnson repeated his regular complaint that parliament had blocked his deal – in fact MPs supported the second reading but sought more time to scrutinise it – and that there would be no checks or paperwork for goods moving from Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK.

Asked by a caller if, under his Brexit plan, he could commit to no such checks or paperwork, Johnson said: “Yes, I absolutely can.” This is under debate, not least as Stephen Barclay, the Brexit secretary, told a recent House of Lords committee that businesses would need to complete “exit summary declarations” for such shipments.

Johnson’s performance was mocked by Labour, with the party’s press operation tweeting a series of links to articles debunking his claims. “Boris Johnson can’t help himself,” one tweet began.

Other errors were more straightforward and easier to verify. Asked by Burden what proportion of net migration to the UK came from the EU as opposed to other nations, Johnson said he believed it was about half. It is, Burden told him, just under a quarter.

And some were merely political attack lines, if none the more accurate for that. Speaking later at a campaign event in Oldham, Greater Manchester, Johnson said Jeremy Corbyn “actually thinks home ownership is a bad idea”, not a view the Labour leader appears to have expressed.

He also accused Corbyn of wanting to disband the armed forces, when the furthest Corbyn seems to have gone on this was a generalised wish for more countries to be able to act like Costa Rica and have no army.

After his series of media interviews, Johnson travelled to Lancashire, where he unveiled his party’s battlebus in the Labour safe-seat of Oldham West and Royton.

He gave a stump speech to a group of party activists in front of the vehicle – adorned with the slogan: “Get Brexit done, unleash Britain’s potential” – in a warehouse of the parcel delivery company DPD, which has been criticised in recent years for its couriers’ working conditions.

“You may ask: ‘Why do we need a bus? Why do we need an election?’ Well, the answer is that parliament is unfortunately paralysed,” said Johnson.

He likened parliament to “a blocked artery at the heart of the British body politic” and said that passing his Brexit deal would be like an angioplasty, “unblocking the system and getting us back on our feet”.

The Tory party will on Saturday urge people to “vote blue, go green”, pledging a new £500m fund to protect the world’s oceans and to triple tree-planting rates.

“There is nothing more Conservative than protecting our environment and these measures sit alongside our world-leading commitment to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” Johnson was set to say.

Five questionable assertions

Claim: Johnson said that as London mayor he reduced the murder rate to below 100 “several years running”.

Fact: It was just one year: 2014.

Claim: It was “Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party” who were responsible for delaying Brexit beyond 31 October.

Fact: Johnson was obliged to seek a new date because of a law drawn up by backbenchers led by the Tory MP Oliver Letwin – although this was backed by Labour.

Claim: The massive losses from the doomed London garden bridge were not his fault.

Fact: As mayor of London, Johnson relentlessly pushed the project, despite repeated warnings about its viability. He has yet to fully explain his role in losses totalling more than £50m.

Claim: There will be no paperwork for Northern Irish firms exporting goods to the rest of the UK.

Fact: This is not what Johnson’s Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, has said.

Claim: Labour, if elected, would have two referendums in 2020 – on Brexit and Scottish independence.

Fact: Jeremy Corbyn has repeatedly ruled out a second Scottish independence vote in the first period of government.