The Biggest Whoppers And Dubious Tactics Parties Used In The Election Campaign
Sajid Javid
The claim: Homelessness has fallen under the Tories.
During an interview with Sky News presenter Kay Burley, the chancellor was asked to defend the government’s record and he claimed that homelessness had “peaked in 2008” and since “fallen by half”.
He went on to say that “Labour was responsible for the massive rise of homelessness”.
The reality: This couldn’t be further from the truth. Homelessness did in fact peak in 2004, when Tony Blair was prime minister, at which point there were 101,300 households living in temporary accommodation. Rough sleepers are counted separately but the figures are much lower.
Between 2004 and 2011, which was the year after Labour lost power to the Tory-led coalition, that declined to 48,010.
It is a fact that the number of families living in temporary accommodation has risen steadily since then, standing today at 84,740 households.
The figure represents a 77% increase on 2010, the year David Cameron took power with the Conservative-led coalition.
Labour
Jeremy Corbyn
The claim: Violent crime has doubled under “the Conservatives’ austerity programme”.
The reality: Not true. It prompted the head of the UK Statistics Authority to write a letter to Corbyn, pointing out that official data actually showed “little change” in overall violent crime.