How Boris Johnson and the Tories have lied - let me count the ways

OVER and over, Tory MPS have voted unanimously only to have the Government U-turn, undermining their credibility, including proroguing Parliament, support for Owen Patterson and oil companies windfall tax.

It is no coincidence that the chancellor announced his cost of living package the day after Sue Gray’s report into Partygate.

His £15bn support (£5bn tax on the oil companies and £10bn borrowed) is also giving 91 pence in the pound for further exploration and green energy, i.e. giving back the windfall tax.

The Government, who for the last 12 years eroded the safety net for the disadvantaged, with 8 million now struggling, has panicked because of fear for social unrest. It is no accident that the Government has passed such Draconian laws to limit our freedom to protest.

To parody Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “how have I conned you? let me count the ways ...”

1. Osbourne and Hammond borrowed £ 1 trillion, at the same time cutting department budgets and bringing in savage austerity.

2. Labour bailed out the banks in 2008 costing £500bn in cash.

None of the banks paid all they had borrowed even at the pound value of 2008. The taxpayer pays interest on this e.g Osbourne said “I welcome the progress in returning Lloyds bank to the private sector. We have now recovered £20bn for the taxpayer and are very close to recovering all the taxpayers money injected into the bank.” But “recovering” all the money forked out for Lloyds is not quite the case. The effective APR for government borrowing is 2.66 per cent. The costs of bailing out Lloyds will have cost the taxpayer £500m. That is just for one bank.

3. The Office of Budgetary Reform said Sunak’s freezing of personal tax allowances until 2026 would yield £19bn, leading to more people paying more tax.

4. The furlough scheme in 20202021 cost £70bn. HMRC stated £5.28bn of claims were fraudulent. Of the bounce back loan scheme £4.9bn of claims were fraudulent. The Select Committee said the £37bn Track and Trace scheme was not fit for purpose.

5. Overinflated PPE contracts given to people on the fast track. Their accounts show a huge surge in profits. Contracts promised to applicants who did not have a company until after the promise given.

6. Loss of unsuitable, unusable or not delivered PPE totals £28bn.

7. Tax evasion of £236bn a year in offshore tax havens. Government is not interested - it’s not rocket science to guess why. In 2020 the EU introduced very tough tax evasion laws - this was hidden during the Brexit vote.

8. Lord Agnew Minister for counter fraud resigned as the Government is losing £29bn a year due to tax fraud. He said

Government’s record on fraud was characterised by ”arrogance. indolence and ignorance”.

9. Removed pensions triple lock. Chancellor claimed that wages post lockdown had raised by 8 per cent. Not true - wages fell during the pandemic and furlough payments. The rise was artificial.

10. With all prices increasing, VAT returns will be substantial. Last year VAT was £130bn - this will rise substantially this year.

11. Disposable income is the lowest since 1955, taxpayers face the double whammy of increased inflation and increased taxes and VAT.

12. What do these add up to? £362bn. The problem is that this is a corrupt government. Johnson is as Dominic Grieve, former Tory attorney General, has said, “a serial liar”.

Why should anyone trust Johnson when he is a habitual liar?