Boris Johnson’s pandemic claims fact-checked – including THAT Brexit claim

Boris Johnson faces two days of questioning over his handling of the pandemic as he appears before the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

The former prime minister is expected to admit his government made mistakes in its response to the virus but argue that its decisions ultimately saved lives.

Johnson will also insist that he followed the advice of scientists and did not lock down the country more quickly because herd immunity was initially favoured, the Telegraph reported.

Ahead of his appearance in front of the inquiry, Full Fact, a charity of fact-checkers and campaigners, has released a roundup of fact checks into the misleading claims made by Mr Johnson since the pandemic began.

1.Brexit didn’t change the UK’s ability to authorise the Covid-19 vaccines earlier than the rest of the EU.

At the start of 2023 the charity fact checked a misleading claim from the former PM that the UK wouldn’t have been able to approve the Covid-19 vaccines as quickly as it did without Brexit. Boris Johnson made the misleading claim on Talk TV. 

Full Fact also fact checked a number of ministers making a similar claim during the pandemic, including Matt Hancock.

2. There were not more people in work during the pandemic than before it

Boris Johnson made a false claim about employment levels during the pandemic at least nine times, despite being warned by Full Fact and official bodies that it was incorrect.

Statistics at the time showed that there were 600,000 fewer people in work than before the pandemic. 

3. Government guidance withdrawn in March did say it was ‘very unlikely’ people in care homes would be infected with Covid-19

In Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday 13 May 2020, Keir Starmer said that, until 12 March, government guidance said it was “very unlikely” that people in care homes will become infected with Covid-19. Boris Johnson said this was not the case, which is incorrect. 

Government guidance published on 25 February twice stated that it is “very unlikely” people receiving care in care homes or the community will be infected with the new coronavirus. This advice was withdrawn on 13 March, and replaced with new guidance about what to do in the event of an outbreak at a care home or other supported living.

4. Boris Johnson was wrong to say that “everybody” is entitled to extra self-isolation support

Boris Johnson suggested that everybody who’s self-isolating due to Covid-19 is entitled to the equivalent of living wage, statutory sick pay, council support in extreme circumstances and a £500 payment.

This was not true. All employees (with a few exceptions) were entitled to statutory sick pay from their employer of £96.35 a week if they are self-isolating (provided the reason for self-isolating isn’t that they have recently returned from abroad).

But people were not legally entitled to the equivalent of the living wage (£8.91 an hour for over 23s) while they were self-isolating.

Full Fact also fact checked  Mr Johnson’s claims about testing, which weren’t supported by the data available, and whether any country had a functioning contact tracing app.

In addition to fact checks the charity also tried to provide clarity amidst the confusion regarding a reported ‘back to work’ campaign in autumn 2020, including comments from Mr Johnson. 

More recently, Full Fact looked again at claims on life expectancy made in a series of 2020 WhatsApp messages by Mr Johnson.

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