Justin Madders

Boris Johnson has made a claim About The Number of people in work that the regulator had told No10 was incorrect.

There were " more people in work now than before the pandemic began" He Said at Prime Minister 's Questions on Wednesday.

But on Tuesday, Ed Humpherson, from The Office for Statistics Regulation, had sent one of the Prime Minister 's advisers at Downing Street saying it was " incorrect to state that there were more people in work at The End of this period than the start".

Responding to a complaint from the fact-checking organisation Full Fact , Mr Humpherson had told No 10 this claim had been made by the Prime Minister in Parliament on 24 November, 15 December, 5 January, 12 January and 19 January.

And it was " disappointing" the Prime Minister had " continued to refer to payroll employment As If describing total employment, despite contact from our office and from others".

The problem is Mr Johnson has been mixing up The Number of people on payrolls, which has gone up with The Number of people in work, which has not.

They are not the same Thing - the payroll number excludes self-employed people, for example.

Labour MP Justin Madders raised a point of order in The House of Commons, pointing out The Letter saying The Claim was incorrect.

" The Public have a right to expect what is said by the Prime Minister at the dispatch box to be truthful and accurate, " He Said .

Here's what the latest official figures show.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) 32. 5 million over-16s were in work between September and November 2021 - About 600,000 fewer than in The Last three-month period before the pandemic, December 2019 to February 2020.

But the, in December 2021, was 29. 5 million, which is just over 400,000 More Than in February 2020.

And Mr Johnson had in fact already referred to that number in previous answer.

Source of news: bbc.com