FactCheck: final PMQs
Updated on 16 July 2008
In the last prime minister's questions of the parliamentary session did Brown and David Cameron hang on to the facts?
The claim
"I remember when we inherited debt at 44 per cent of national income and reduced it to 38 per cent. We inherited rising inflation and brought it down. I also remember large numbers of people unemployed and we have made them employed. When will he remember there are now three million people in work as a result of a Labour government?"
Gordon Brown, prime minister, prime minister's questions, 16 July 2008
The analysis
Brown's responding to a jibe from former chancellor Ken Clarke on the country's impending economic bust - but does his memory serve him correctly?
Public sector net debt was 43.3 per cent of GDP in 1996-97; the next year it dropped to 41.3 per cent and continued to sink to a rather lower number than Brown quotes - 30.3 per cent of GDP in 2001-02.
Since then, however, it has crept up - as FactCheck noted last week - to 36.7 per cent of GDP at the end of March 2008.
If Northern Rock were included on the balance sheet, the total would be 43.1 per cent of GDP, just a smidge off the number the number for which Brown is deriding Clarke. Although including Northern Rock does mean we're not really comparing like and like.
Inflation is an interesting stat to pull out of the briefing hat, given that the consumer price index (the government's preferred measure of inflation) rocketed yesterday to 3.8 per cent, its highest since Labour came to power and nearly double the government's current 2 per cent target.
In contrast, when Labour came to power in May 1997, CPI inflation stood at 1.6 per cent, down rather than up from 1.7 per cent in March 1997, 1.9 per cent in February 1997 and 2.1 per cent in January 1997.
It rose shortly after Labour came to power - to 2 per cent in July and August 2008 - but then dribbled down for the next few months. As the Bank of England's May 1997 inflation reported noted, "the short-run outlook for inflation is favourable", although it cautioned that action was needed to keep inflation on target two years down the line.
Employment we'll come to again in a moment - but there are around three million more jobs now than in 1997. This is not to be sniffed at but it should be remembered that the UK population has also swelled in that time: it's not as though Labour inherited a Conservative three million unemployed, and shoehorned them all into nicely earning jobs.
Sources
Treasury public finances databank
BoE inflation report May 1997
The claim
"I don't know if he's seen the employment figures today, but employment in this country is at its highest level ever. There are 61,000 more jobs in the economy during the last three months."
Gordon Brown, to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg
What else did the employment figures show? That there are 12,000 more unemployed people than in the past quarter (up to May 2008).
There are indeed an extra 61,000 jobs and a record number of working-age people in employment (25.59 million) - but the employment rate, 74.9 per cent, is unchanged on the previous quarter.
Sources
ONS: employment - rate unchanged at 74.9 per cent, 16 July 1008
FactCheck: more people in work?
The claim
"The home secretary was asked on television: one of the proposals is that people who are caught carrying knives should be taken to see people in hospital who have been stabbed; is that correct? She said, yes it is. In parliament the next day she was asked the same question - and she said, no it isn't."
David Cameron, leader of the opposition
The analysis
After a weekend of headlines about offenders being marched down to A&E to see the consequences of their actions, Jacqui Smith confirmed in a television interview on Sunday that those caught with a knife would be taken to see stab victims at hospital.
But on Monday she claimed she had never, in fact, said that young people would be "taken into wards to see patients". We FactChecked the home secretary's apparent U-turn yesterday; a spinning backpedal, perchance?
The claim
"The prime minister told me last month at prime minister's questions that the majority of drivers will benefit from his changes to car tax. It is now clear that this was simply wrong."
David Cameron
"I told him last week in the House, and the exchange we had last week, and I told him this, that the majority will be no worse off or better off."
Gordon Brown
The analysis
One to Cameron - Gordon Brown did indeed slip up on 4 June, saying that most drivers would be better off under the unpopular vehicle excise duty proposals, which will increase the car tax paid by the most polluting cars from April 2009.
In fact, the official line is that the majority will be the same or no worse off - a rather less voter-pleasing mouthful.
But rather than make a graceful retraction last week, Brown instead quoted back something Cameron said on 4 June: "[Brown] says that next year, half of all motorists will be better off or no worse off; that is what he has just said."
But as FactCheck pointed out at the time, Cameron was in fact misquoting the PM, who had spun things to be even better than they are.
So Brown appears to be making a grudging correction - but he does so by drawing on his quoting last week of an incorrect quote.
Sources
FactCheck: Gordon Brown on car tax
FactCheck: Brown's taxing PMQs
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