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"Of course, I said no such thing because inflation is always something that we have to be careful about."

Boris Johnson, Prime Minister’s Questions

5 January 2022

Facts

During PMQ’s, Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner claimed that Johnson had said in October that public fears about inflation were unfounded. 

This came as inflation was nearing 6%

Mr Johnson replied:  "Of course, I said no such thing because inflation is always something that we have to be careful about."

As Full Fact pointed out, this is not true. During an interview with Sky News on 5 October 2021, when he was asked “are you worried about inflation?” the Prime Minister said: “people have been worrying about inflation for a very long time. I’m looking at robust economic growth, and by the way those fears have been unfounded.”

On 12 January 2022, Labour MP Ruth Cadbury asked Mr Johnson during PMQs if he would correct the record.

Mr Johnson replied: “No, because I immediately said in my answer to the question [at PMQs on 5 January] that of course you had to be concerned about inflation at all times.”

Verdict

Boris Johnson later declined a request by Angela Rayner to correct the record. This was one of a number of false claims made during PMQs on January 5 2022. This false claim remains on the Hansard record in defiance of the Ministerial Code

This is one of a number of cases where Boris Johnson refused to correct the record even though the error had been brought to his attention. By refusing to correct the record he was knowingly leaving a false statement in Hansard. 

We sent a letter to Johnson’s personal and office address offering him the chance to respond. The letter was received (and signed for) by both, but no reply. 

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