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“We got Brexit done when [Keir Starmer] voted 48 times—48 times—to undo the will of the people.”

Boris Johnson, Prime Ministers Questions

24 May 2022

Facts

Exemplary analysis by FullFact has shown that Mr Starmer voted 48 times on matters related in some way to Brexit, but only a handful of these votes were directly about whether Britain should be part of the EU. 

All but three took place before the UK formally left the EU on 31 January 2020 - so they could not have been in favour of rejoining the EU. 

Verdict

Johnson was misleading the Commons. 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.”

Since this was the fourth time that Boris Johnson made this false claim, which has been comprehensively debunked by FullFact, in the Commons we think it is fair and reasonable to state that he was wilfully misleading MPs. To put it bluntly, lying.

We approached Boris Johnson's office, No10 Press Office and the Cabinet Office to give them a chance to comment, but received no response.

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