80%
True
We've increased defence spending from 2.3% to 2.6% in 2027. That's spending 270 billion pounds over this Parliament.
NATO-qualifying UK defence spending was 2.3% of GDP in 2024-25, and the Government has committed to 2.5% by 2027 (2.6% once intelligence and security spending is included in the definition). The £270 billion figure matches the total defence budget over the Spending Review period set out in the June 2026 Defence Investment Plan. The 2.3%-to-2.6% comparison mixes a headline (2.3%) with a broadened definition (2.6%).
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70%
True
When they [the Conservatives] came into power defence spending was 2.5%, and they took it down to 2.3%.
Per NATO/House of Commons Library data, UK defence spending was around 2.5% of GDP in 2010 when the Conservative-led government took office and stood at about 2.3% by the time they left office in 2024. (The low point was actually nearer 2.0% around 2017-18 before rising again, so the start-to-end framing is broadly accurate.)
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70%
True
We've already signed 1,400 major defence contracts. 94% of those, Mr. Speaker, are with British businesses.
The Government states more than 1,400 defence contracts have been signed since July 2024, with 94% of the total contract spend going to UK-based companies. The 94% figure refers to share of spend (not number of contracts) and has been questioned by industry over what counts as a 'British' company.
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75%
True
They cut the army from 100,000 down to 72,000.
The 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review reduced the Army from about 102,000 trade-trained personnel, and successive cuts set a target of 72,500 by 2025. The 100,000-to-72,000 figures are a fair approximation of that reduction.
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70%
Imprecise
They missed army recruitment targets every single year for 14 years.
The National Audit Office found the Army has missed its recruitment targets every year since the Capita Recruiting Partnering Project began (2012-13), with annual shortfalls of 21%-45%. That is essentially the whole period but the documented run of missed targets starts around 2013, not the full 14 years since 2010.
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75%
True
When they left office 47 out of 49 major defence contracts were delayed or over budget.
The Commons Defence Committee reported that of 49 major MoD programmes only two were on time and to budget - i.e. 47 of 49 were delayed or over budget - consistent with Public Accounts Committee scrutiny of the MoD Equipment Plan.
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65%
True
We've also given our armed forces the biggest pay rise in over 20 years.
The 2024 armed forces pay award (around 6%) accepted by the incoming Government was described as the largest in more than 20 years, followed by a further 4.5% in 2025 - three consecutive above-inflation rises. The characterisation is broadly supported.
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60%
Imprecise
That's why the benefits bill is set to rise to over 200 billion pounds by the end of the decade.
The direction is right but the figure understates it: the OBR forecasts total welfare spending reaching about £407 billion by 2030-31, and DWP benefit expenditure is already well above £200 billion. If 'benefits bill' means only working-age/health-and-disability benefits the threshold is plausible, but the phrasing is imprecise.
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80%
True
NHS waiting lists are coming down to fastest rate for 17 years.
NHS England reported in May 2026 the biggest single-month cut in the waiting list in 17 years, with the RTT list falling to around 7.1 million (from a 7.7m peak) and roughly half a million fewer people waiting over 18 weeks.
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60%
Imprecise
Because of exemptions in the Offensive Weapons Act 2019, those same events permit the carrying of blades up to 5 in long.
The general exemption to carrying a bladed article in public is a folding pocket knife with a cutting edge up to 3 inches (7.62cm) under s.139 Criminal Justice Act 1988, not 5 inches. Longer or religious blades (e.g. a kirpan) can be carried only with 'good reason'. The '5 inches' figure does not match the statutory exemption.
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90%
True
The Mildmay Hospital in my constituency, established in 1877, has been a pioneer for HIV and AIDS care since the 1980s. Diana, Princess of Wales, made 17 visits to this unique charitable hospital.
Mildmay Mission Hospital was founded in 1877 and became a pioneering HIV/AIDS unit in the 1980s. Mildmay's own records state Diana, Princess of Wales visited 17 times (3 official and 14 private) between 1989 and her death in 1997.
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85%
True
Peter Murrell pleaded guilty to embezzling over 400,000 pounds of SNP members' funds ... ranging from a salt and pepper grinder to a new Jaguar to a luxury motorhome.
Peter Murrell, former SNP chief executive, admitted embezzling £400,310.65 of SNP funds over 2010-2022 at the High Court (Operation Branchform); spending included a luxury motorhome and a Jaguar car among other items. The description matches the case.
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70%
True
The British Standards Institution is 125 years old this year ... BS 30480, the world's first free standard on suicide in the workplace ... downloaded more than 12,500 times.
BSI was founded in 1901, making 2026 its 125th year. BS 30480 (Suicide and the workplace) is confirmed by BSI as the first British Standard - and world's first - to address suicide in the workplace, published as a free standard. The specific '12,500 downloads' figure is not independently verifiable from primary sources.
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80%
True
It has been reported that the Chief of the Defence Staff told the Prime Minister that the Ministry of Defence needs an extra 28 billion pounds ... the Chancellor is only willing to find 13 billion pounds for the DIP.
Confermato dalla cronaca parlamentare UK sul Defence Investment Plan (giugno 2026): il Capo di Stato Maggiore della Difesa (Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton) ha scritto direttamente al Premier Starmer segnalando che al MoD serve chiudere un buco di circa 28 miliardi di sterline, mentre il Tesoro/Cancelliere ha offerto circa 13,5 miliardi sui quattro anni (di cui solo ~10 miliardi 'nuovi'). Le dimissioni del ministro Healey e del sottosegretario Carns confermano lo scontro sui numeri. Cifre: 28 mld richiesti, ~13 mld offerti (13,5 mld l'offerta iniziale) — '13 miliardi' e' un arrotondamento corretto.
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