Debunked: Johnson’s claim that the Conservatives have delivered on ‘every single one’ of their promises

Jack Peat

Here are ten reasons why that is not true

Boris Johnson delivered a staunch defence of his Government’s track record in the House of Commons on Monday.

The Prime Minister was forced to table a motion of confidence in the government to avoid facing another vote on his own leadership.

With 349 votes from Tory MPs the motion was allowed to pass, leaving Johnson in the post as caretaker PM, or as Sir Keir Starmer humorously termed it, as No 10’s “vengeful squatter”.

Johnson opened the debate with a lengthy speech defending his record and claiming that his government “delivered on every single one of its promises”.

He told MPs: “We got Brexit done and though the rejoiners and the revengers were left plotting and planning and biding their time – and I’ll have more to say about the events of the last few weeks and months in due course – we delivered on every single one of our promises.”

Boris Johnson told the Commons his party had "delivered on every single one of our promises" and claimed had "no idea" why Labour called a confidence vote in the government

But the Speaker reminded him "it is actually the government" that tabled the motion pic.twitter.com/UcMFkw3Shq

— PoliticsHome (@politicshome) July 18, 2022

Several people were quick to point out that Johnson’s claim was far from the truth, with the Mirror’s online political editor describing the statement as “objectively, incredibly untrue”.

A quick look through the archives would suggest he and others are right to call out his ability to deliver on their commitments.

Here are ten juicy manifest0-busting examples:

1. National Insurance rises

In April, the Prime Minister was forced to defend the decision to hike up national insurance for millions of workers as contributions were hiked by 1.25 percentage points.

The Conservatives promised “not to raise the rates of income tax, national insurance or VAT”.

2. Pension triple lock

Last year, the government suspended the pension “triple lock” for a year, citing the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the triple lock the state pension raises by 2.5 per cent, the rate of inflation, or the rate in increase of earnings – whichever is highest.

The Tories resolutely pledged to keep it in place in 2019.

3. Northern Powerhouse Rail

Pledges to address England’s regional transport inequality were significantly scaled back last November in a move that was labelled as a “great northern rail betrayal.”

The eastern journey of HS2 to Leeds and a full high-speed line linking Leeds to Manchester were both abandoned.

Richard Burgon, Labour MP for Leeds East, described “levelling up” as a “Conservative con job” following the announcement.

4. Maintain foreign aid

The government managed to fend off a backbench revolt over plans to slash foreign aid by almost £4 billion in July 2021.

MPs voted by a majority of 35 to keep the budget for international development at 0.5 per cent of national income, rather than the 0.7 per cent pledged in the 2019 manifesto.

5. Social care

In 2019, the Conservatives pledged that no one should have to sell their home to pay for their care.

That manifesto pledge was diluted less than a year into the administration, with the new Health and Care Bill likely to leave some poorer pensioners facing “catastrophic” costs, the architect of the care cap, Andrew Dilnot, said.

6. 40 new hospitals

“What’s happened to the 40 new hospitals pledge?”, BBC Reality Check asked earlier this month.

They found that of the 40 ‘new’ hospitals promised, 22 are actually rebuilding projects, 12 are new wings within existing hospitals, three involve rebuilding non-urgent care hospitals and three are new hospitals (two general hospitals and one non-urgent care hospital).

Three!

7. 300,000 homes

Michael Gove was forced to backtrack on the government’s house-building target in an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme in May.

“We’re going to do everything we can [to meet the target] – but it’s no kind of success simply to hit a target if the homes are shoddy, in the wrong place, don’t have the infrastructure required and are not contributing to beautiful communities,” he said.

The target, set out in the 2019 Conservative manifesto, is for “300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s”.

8. 6,000 more GPs

Former Health Secretary Sajid Javid admitted that No 10 is likely to break its promise to increase the number of GPs in England by 6,000 at the end of last year.

He disclosed that the figure, a key promise in the Conservatives’ general election manifesto in 2019, was unlikely to be met given the number of GPs retiring early.

9. Net Zero by 2050

A landmark court judgment ruled this week that the UK government’s net-zero strategy is in breach of the law – as it doesn’t explain how targets will be met.

The High Court judgment – published amid the Met Office’s first-ever red alert for extreme heat – said the strategy, which sets out plans to decarbonise the economy, does not meet the government’s obligations under the Climate Change Act.

10. UK to host 1st ever LGBTQ conference

The UK’s first-ever international LGBT+ conference was cancelled earlier this year after a boycott by more than 100 organisations.

“Safe To Be Me” was scheduled to take place in London in June to promote LGBT rights within the UK and globally.

It was a key Conservative pledge unveiled by the then Minister for Women and Equalities, Liz Truss, in 2021.