Cameron repeats his NHS £12.7bn lie in PMQs. Twice. Help shut him down.

I wrote at the weekend about David Cameron’s blatant lie in last week’s Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs) that his government is “putting £12.7 billion extra into the NHS”.

It was blatant not only because it’s absolutely untrue, but even more so because the government was already rebuked by the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) for making the claim when the statistics suggest that spending has gone down in real terms.

David Cameron repeated his ‘Big Lie’ in today’s PMQs – not once, but twice:

This Government are putting £12.7 billion extra into the NHS

and, in a separate ‘answer’,

The Government have put £12.7 billion extra into our NHS. That is how we are supporting carers and hospitals

Leave aside for time being the nonsense of the idea that the Tory-led government is supporting hospitals when A&E waiting times are the highest in 9 years, over 7,000 nursing posts have been cut and around 20,000 others simply left unfilled to reduce costs, leading to record falls in public satisfaction with the NHS.

David Cameron continues not only to bend or shade facts to suit his political agenda, as politicians often do. He is making political capital from outright lies – and doing so after already having been told to stop by the government’s own statistical authority.

I’ve therefore written yet another email to the UKSA as a follow-up to my original one at the weekend:

Dear Mr Dilnot,

Mr Cameron repeated this claim twice more in today’s PMQs. Please expedite your findings on this to prevent the government making political capital out of falsehoods.

Thank you!

Steve