Boris Johnson could be told to correct his false claims about jobs as one of his final acts as Prime Minister.
A leading MP has written to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case asking him to “ensure” the Prime Minister “corrects the record” before he leaves No10 on September 6.
Sir Stephen Timms, chair of the Commons Work and Pensions Committee, counted around a dozen times Boris Johnson told Parliament there were “more people in work” than before Covid.
The PM continued to make the claim, even after being told it was false by the statistics watchdog.
He eventually admitted it was wrong - but never made a formal “ministerial correction”, and then repeated it later. He corrected it in a written answer which doesn’t go into Hansard, the official record of Parliament.
It comes after Mr Johnson’s allies attacked a separate Privileges Committee probe into whether he misled MPs over Partygate, branding it a “witch hunt”.
Sir Stephen told the Mirror: ”I think it’s very important that what ministers say is truthful.
“Looking at the way the Prime Minister has dealt with this, it doesn’t seem to have been very important to him.”
The Labour MP stopped short of saying Mr Johnson is “lying” but added: “He seems to have a real difficulty in recognising what is true and what isn’t.”
He went on: “He wants a good soundbite… whether it’s actually true is a secondary consideration.”
The number of employees on payrolls is at a record high of 29.6million.
But overall employment is still below pre-Covid levels, at 75.9% in July.
“It’s older people giving up on work, not claiming benefits.. and a lot of people who were self-employed have stopped being self-employed now,” Sir Stephen said.
Mr Case cannot force the PM to correct the record but Sir Stephen said: “The system assumes people behave decently. And if they don’t, there’s a problem. Let’s see.”
A government spokesperson said: “The Prime Minister has clarified this issue a number of times - including in response to a written Parliamentary question and a letter to the Liaison Committee."
