Much of Boris Johnson’s farewell speech was taken up by a list of claims about the prime minister’s achievements in office, as he sought to mould how his legacy will be seen in the history books.
He described his own tenure in office as leaving his successors a foundation of “great solid masonry on which we will continue to build together paving the path of prosperity now and for future generations”.
But how much of it was true? The Independent has run the fact-check rule over the outgoing PM’s claims to see where credit is due and where he is stretching the facts.
Got Brexit done: This is the big one, the promise which took him to Downing Street and delivered a landslide general election victory in 2019. It’s certainly true that the UK left the European Union with a withdrawal agreement which came into effect in January 2020. However, it would be wrong to suggest that Brexit is “done” in the sense of having delivered a lasting settlement to relations with the UK’s EU neighbours. Most obviously, the government is at loggerheads with Brussels over the terms Mr Johnson agreed for the Irish border, with Liz Truss promising to press ahead with a Northern Ireland Protocol Bill which would tear up crucial parts of the Brexit deal and risk a trade war. The UK has also so far proved unable to put in place the new regime of border import controls agreed by Mr Johnson, delaying implementation four times with the result that British traders are at an automatic disadvantage compared to continental rivals. And opinion polls show growing majorities who believe Brexit is going badly and the UK should rejoin the EU. PARTIALLY TRUE
Reformed social care: On arrival in No 10, Mr Johnson claimed to have a plan prepared to deal with the crisis in adult social care, but it was two and a half years before the publication of a white paper, which concentrated on ensuring elderly people were not forced to sell their homes. A promised levy to solve the sector’s financial woes, funded from National Insurance, looks set to be swallowed up by the NHS for the foreseeable future – at least until it is abolished by Liz Truss. UNTRUE
Beat Covid: It’s certainly true that the UK – along with most of the rest of the world – has seen infections and deaths decline and moved out of the social restrictions of lockdown. However, this was not without around 200,000 deaths, which put Britain in the top 25 countries for per capita mortality worldwide. And Covid-19 remains with us, with around 25,000 cases and 419 deaths last week in England alone and fears of a winter upsurge and new variants. PARTIALLY TRUE
Delivered the fasted vaccine rollout in Europe: The UK delivered the world’s first jab to a patient in Coventry in December 2020 and it was certainly faster than EU neighbours to get a mass inoculation programme up and running in the following weeks. However, countries initially behind on vaccination rates, such as France and Spain, soon overtook the UK on the share of total population vaccinated and the proportion to have received a full vaccination programme is now higher in countries like Portugal, Italy and France. PARTIALLY TRUE
Organised early supplies of weapons to Ukraine: Despite having told a parliamentary committee last November that tank battles in Europe were a thing of the past, Johnson was quick to recognise the need to deliver munitions to Kyiv, with the first consignment of lethal weapons announced on 17 January, weeks before Russia’s invasion. The UK had also been training Ukrainian troops since Vladimir Putin seized Crimea in 2014. However, the US has provided by far the most military support and has a better claim to have “changed the course of the biggest European war for 80 years”. TRUE
Got the economy moving again: The UK was early globally in dropping Covid restrictions, in part because of Mr Johnson’s rejection of calls for caution over reopening economic life. The UK achieved GDP growth of 7.4 per cent in 2021 – the highest in the G7. However, this was largely due to the fact that Britain was recovering from a deeper economic slump than its rivals, and the IMF now predicts the UK will be bottom of the table of major economies for growth by 2023, with the highest inflation, in part because of Brexit. UNTRUE
Unemployment at its lowest since the 1970s: The official figure for UK unemployment dipped to 3.7 per cent earlier this year – its lowest level since 1974 – and currently stands at 3.8 per cent. However, much of this is believed to result from older workers dropping out of the employment market altogether after the Covid pandemic. And key sectors like hospitality, care and agriculture are reporting extreme difficulty recruiting staff because of Brexit. PARTIALLY TRUE
Winning the biggest majority since 1987 and the biggest share of the vote since 1979: With an 80-seat majority and a 43.6 per cent vote-share, Mr Johnson certainly delivered an electoral breakthrough for the Conservatives in 2019. However, he also delivered record-breaking by-election defeats in North Shropshire and Tiverton & Honiton and saw Tories slump to a double-figure deficit behind Labour in the polls. TRUE, BUT HOW LONG WILL IT LAST?
Strengthened the Union: The Union of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is at its shakiest for many decades, to large degree because Brexit was forced through in the face of opposition in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Mr Johnson has resisted Nicola Sturgeon’s demands for an independence referendum in Scotland, but has seen Sinn Fein become the largest party at Stormont and infuriated many in Northern Ireland with his approach to the border issue. Even in Wales, calls for departure from the UK have grown in volume. UNTRUE
Made streets safer: Mr Johnson cited the statistic that “neighbourhood crime” had fallen by 38 per cent over the past three years. However, official figures released earlier this year showed recorded crime in England and Wales at a 20-year high. And just 5.6 per cent of offences reported to police resulted in a charge or summons, compared to 16 per cent in 2014. Mr Johnson’s boast of recruiting 13,790 more police is some way short of his promise to replace the 20,000 officers cut during the austerity years of earlier Conservative PM David Cameron. UNTRUE
Building 40 new hospitals: This promise was exposed as dodgy almost as soon as it was made with ministers admitting that Mr Johnson’s “new” hospitals included many refurbishment or extension projects at existing facilities. A BBC investigation in July found that just three of the proposed projects involved entirely new hospitals, and that only one clinical building had actually opened as part of the programme, with six others under construction. The government’s own watchdog is reported to have rated the scheme red, meaning it “appears to be unachievable”, and Mr Johnson himself conceded it was a task his successor would have to complete. UNTRUE
Three new high speed rail lines including Northern Powerhouse rail: The initial vision for a high-speed NPR rail line linking Liverpool to Hull has been significantly curtailed, with scaled-down proposals now largely envisaging the upgrading of existing lines. Meanwhile, the eastern leg of HS2, between Birmingham and Leeds, was scrapped by the government as part of its Integrated Rail Plan. UNTRUE
Rollout of gigabit broadband: Mr Johnson recently celebrated the milestone of 70 per cent high-speed broadband coverage, up from 7 per cent in 2019. But the government has quietly downgraded the manifesto pledge of 100 per cent coverage to 85 per cent. PARTIALLY TRUE
Providing the short and long-term solutions for our energy needs: Mr Johnson’s government has certainly stepped up the construction of offshore wind facilities, with the world’s largest array, Hornsea 2, opening off the east coast just days ago. However, this ignores the elephant in the room that the government has imposed an effective ban on the development of the cheapest and most effective form of renewable energy, by making new onshore wind farms all but impossible. Mr Johnson’s boasts of a new nuclear reactor every year remain aspirations, with Hinkley Point C in Somerset mired in delay and the outgoing PM unable to give the full green light to the proposed Sizewell C plant in Essex before departure. Ms Truss and her likely chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng are on board with the development of nuclear, but the new PM’s focus seems more on the exploitation of fossil fuel reserves in the North Sea and even the return of carbon-intensive fracking. DOUBTFUL
