Facts

Frazer made this fabricated claim in a discussion about the National Health on Question Time. She may not have been aware of this that she was repeating a lie uttered countless times by Boris Johnson and regularly exposed as nonsensical on this website and elsewhere.

In 2021, the government reinvented the definition of “new hospital” by ordering NHS Trusts to describe a “major new clinical building on an existing site or a new wing of an existing hospital” and a “major refurbishment and alteration of all but the building frame or main structure” as a “new hospital”.

Verdict

It is disappointing that a senior minister in the new Sunak government should repeat Boris Johnson’s  lie about 40 new hospitals.

We emailed Lucy Frazer’s office and the DLUHC Press Office offering them the chance to respond. The email was received by Frazer’s  office, but no reply.