Boris Johnson today made a claim to Parliament that he already admitted was untrue weeks ago, and apparently promised not to use again.
The Prime Minister told PMQs there were “more people in work than there were before the pandemic”.
Yet less than a month ago, he accepted a correction about that very figure from the UK Statistics Authority.
It comes just as the PM prepares to order MPs to block an inquiry into whether he misled Parliament deliberately over Partygate.
Mr Johnson has denied deliberately misleading Parliament, insisting he reflected the facts as he knew them at the time.
While people on payrolls are up since pre-Covid, the number of people in jobs overall was still down by 580,000 compared to December 2019-February 2020, previous figures suggested.
And while UK employment was 75.5% in April 2022, the latest figure, that was still 1.1 points lower than pre Covid, the Office for National Statistics said.
The difference between payroll and employment is because payroll statistics do not capture the self-employed.
UKSA chair Sir David Norgrove previously told the PM “it is wrong to claim that there are now more people in work than before the pandemic began”, but he continued using the figure.
On March 30, Boris Johnson accepted he was talking about people on payrolls.
Asked by the Commons Liaison Committee if he accepted the UKSA's correction he said: “Yes I do.
“And that’s why I took particular care today, mindful as I am of Sir David’s chastisement on all occasions, I stressed it was payroll employment I was talking about.
“There were 400,000 more, there are now 600,000 more people on the payroll than they were before the pandemic began.
“That is not half bad when you consider what we were predicting - everybody was talking about 12% unemployment, I seem to recall.”
But today, Mr Johnson reverted to talking about “people in work” without mentioning the world “payroll”.
He told Prime Minister’s Questions: “We’re going to get on with delivering for the British people, making sure we power out of the problems Covid has left us.
“More people in work than there were before the pandemic, fixing our energy problems, and leading the world in standing up to the aggression of Vladimir Putin.”
The PM's spokesman declined to comment on the PM again using an incorrect claim, saying he would need to check the details.
Mr Johnson said last month: “My overall picture I think is right - that the employment record of the government has been absolutely outstanding.”
But told he had given the wrong figure nine times he replied: “I think I took steps to correct the record earlier”.
It was not immediately apparent where he has done this. The PM did not correct the record formally in Parliament.
He added: “I certainly have been very punctilious to talk about payroll employment.”
