Facts

Caulfield was responding to a question about nurses’ pay. Due diligence organisation Full Fact noted “This figure is problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, it describes an inflation-matching pay rise for all public sector workers, not just nurses. There are also concerns about how it was calculated, including the fact it does not appear to take into account money that would come back in taxes on these higher salaries.”

Full Fact reports that “After we published this fact check, we contacted Maria Caulfield to request a correction to her claim that matching nurse pay to inflation would cost every household in the country about £1,000, and to ask for details of the calculations relating to the other claims about nurse pay. Ms Caulfield is yet to respond.”

Verdict

Maria Caulfield was misleading BBC viewers in a number of ways.  First her £1,000 per household figure related to an across the board increase for all public sector workers and not just nurses. Second, as Fact Check has shown, the £1,000 per household figure is an exaggeration anyway. The health minister’s response was a shambles. We don’t think she was lying. We think that she didn’t know what she was talking about.

We emailed Maria Caulfield’s office and the Department for Health and Social Care offering them the chance to respond. The email was received, but no reply.