James O'Brien fact-checks Boris Johnson's election launch speech
6 November 2019, 13:19 | Updated: 7 November 2019, 08:33
James O'Brien and Theo Usherwood were forced to correct a number of the claims made by Boris Johnson in his election launch speech.
The LBC host fact-checked the Prime Minister's claims on his immigration policy, Ofsted and Salisbury among other claims that he made in the speech outside Downing Street as he kicked off the election campaign.
"I don't want to have an election"
He started by saying he doesn't want an election, but Theo Usherwood stated: "There were four attempts to have an election by the Conservatives, three votes under the Fixed Term Parliament Act and one which eventually succeeded with the Early Election Bill to override that."
James added: "The second reading of the Withdrawal Agreement passed. It was his objection to the timetable that parliament wanted that led to the election. It was entirely his desire and his decision to pursue that."
"Labour want to abolish Ofsted, which stops children being bullied in schools"
Labour had said they want to replace Ofsted, the schools rating organisation. But James pointed out: "Labour said they want to replace it, but Boris Johnson is suggesting they want to abolish it and not replace it."
"Under Labour, there will be a second Brexit referendum in nine months"
Theo: "He said there would be a second referendum on our membership of the European Union under Labour in nine months. The Labour policy is six months".
"Jeremy Corbyn sided with Putin in the wake of the Salisbury attack"
Theo: It is true that Jeremy Corbyn's response at the Dispatch Box following the Salisbury attacks in March last year was to that we should provide samples for Russia to test."
James: "It was a ridiculous intervention at the time, but remind us if it's Jeremy Corbyn or Boris Johnson who is sitting on a report from the Intelligence and Security Select Committee examining Russian infiltration into British politics, despite the fact that the security services say there is nothing to stop it being released."
