Fact

Speaking at Prime Minister’s Questions, Sunak boasted that Boris Johnson built 60,000 affordable homes in his first five years in office as Mayor of London. 

Greater London Authority data shows 94,001 affordable London homes were built between 2008-2016. 

It also shows that 63,222 of these were built under the National Affordable Homes Programme; a Labour scheme over which Johnson had no influence.

The result is a net figure of 30,779 affordable homes built during Johnson’s mayoralty that were unrelated to the Labour scheme. 

Sunak made this same claim at Prime Minister’s Questions on 7 December 2022.

Verdict

A false statement from Rishi Sunak at PMQs, made worse by the fact that had used it before.

According to the Ministerial Code,  “It is of paramount importance that Ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity.  Ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament will be expected to offer their resignation to the Prime Minister.” The Prime Minister was misleading the House of Commons.

We emailed Rishi Sunak’s office and Number 10 offering him the chance to respond. The email was received but, alas, no reply.