Sarah Jones, the Labour MP for Croydon West, has had her work in Parliament as the government’s industry minister given an ‘F’ grade, after she made a false claim in the House of Commons.
Ministerial blunder: Croydon West MP Sarah Jones has been told to get her facts right
The AI-powered truth checker Full Fact issued the gentlest of slaps on the wrist last night, under the headline: “Sarah Jones the latest minister to repeat inaccurate claim about UK’s projected growth”. Oh.
Full Fact was responding to Jones’s claim that, “The International Monetary Fund and the OECD predict that the UK will be Europe’s fastest-growing economy over the next few years.” Except that they don’t.
Jones had been responding to LibDem MP Clive Jones (no relation), who raised the spectre of expensive-to-buy electric vehicles, and the chainsaw-weilding President of the United States, Elon Musk.
“Zero-emission vehicles are too expensive and, it appears, too hard to manufacture in the UK,” the MP for Wokingham said.
“That forces us into an unfortunate reality in which we are reliant on Elon Musk for our supply of EVs, and are funnelling money into his already very deep pockets, rather than promoting a productive domestic market with good jobs…
“What measures will the government take to support and encourage consumer demand for electric vehicles?”
In her response, Sarah Jones said, “As I have mentioned, there was £2billion announced in the Budget for the automotive industry. Interest rates have been cut three times, wages are up and more than 70,000 jobs have been secured in the UK since the Government came to power.” And then she went into her spiel about the IMF and OECD – something to which the official parliamentary record, Hansard, has now added a correction anotation.
Full Fact explains: “We’ve fact-checked versions of this claim made by several government ministers in recent weeks, and Ms Jones’ claim was identified by Full Fact’s AI tools. As we’ve explained, this isn’t what the latest projections from these organisations show, and Ms Jones’ office has now told Full Fact she will correct the record.”
Would you buy a new car from this man?: the Croydon MP was answering a question about the government’s lack of support for EV manufacture in Britain
According to the IMF in January, GDP in this country is expected to increase by 1.6% in 2025 and by 1.5% in 2026. Both Spain (2.3% and 1.8%) and Poland (3.5% and 3.3%) are projected to have higher growth in both years. The Netherlands is projected to have similar GDP growth to the UK in 2025 (1.6%) and higher growth in 2026 (1.8%).
As Full Fact points out: “In December, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development also projected that several European countries will have higher GDP growth in both 2025 and 2026 than the UK (1.7% and 1.3%), including Spain (2.3% and 2%), Denmark (2.5% and 1.7%) and Poland (3.4% and 3%).”
“We’ve not seen any other comments from the IMF or OECD to support Ms Jones’ claim,” Full Fact’s public take down states.
“It’s possible Ms Jones meant to say that the UK was projected to have the fastest growth among European economies in the G7. The IMF and the OECD’s latest figures both project that the UK will have faster growth than France, Germany and Italy — the other three European countries in the group.”
And for further clarification, Full Fact added: “Chancellor Rachel Reeves and other government ministers have said previously that the UK is projected to be the fastest growing “major” European economy.”
Whoops.
It could be interesting when the industry minister starts having her facts checked about what she has to say about Gatwick Airport, where she worked before becoming an MP.
Full Fact say that they are a team of independent fact-checkers and campaigners.
“Full Fact fights for the right information to reach the people who need it most, whether that’s individuals making decisions about their health or who to vote for, or politicians debating the future of our country.”
And they say that they expect anyone making serious claims in public debate should, “Get their facts right; Back up what they say with evidence; Correct their mistakes.”
Anyone fancy submitting some of porkie pie Perry’s recent statements to Full Fact?
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