Lord Frost says Boris Johnson makes ‘factually incorrect statements’
Boris Johnson’s former Brexit supremo Lord David Frost has said the Prime Minister has a penchant for “making factually incorrect statements”.
The former cabinet minister said at a Westminster event today that “I wish he would not say things like that which are obviously not true”, when referring to the Prime Minister’s recent claim that there are more people in work now than before the Covid pandemic.
“But in the end it’s for the Prime Minister’s own party and MPs to decide – is that how they want to do things or is it not,” he said.
Johnson’s former close ally has become increasingly critical of the Prime Minister, particularly around his economic record and decisions post-Covid to hike taxes.
He resigned from cabinet in December out of frustration with the government’s policy direction.
Responding to Frost’s comments, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I would point to what he said in parliament yesterday. He is referring to the number of people who are on payroll which is higher now than it was before the pandemic.
“I think he has made that clear in the House on a couple of occasions.”
Frost was the architect of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement and the post-Brexit UK-EU trade deal.
He was a strong advocate for changing the Northern Ireland Protocol, a section of the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement, after it caused economic and political unrest.
Frost said that it may be impossible to ever know if Brexit has been bad for the economy.
Speaking at an event hosted by UK in a Changing Europe, Frost said: “If it’s to succeed it needs to settle in the British polity and there needs to be broad consensus that this is how we are going forward. I don’t think we’re quite there at the moment.
“I am not sure we will ever get economic evidence one way or the other that is going to prove this. The tests are broader, the tests are about democracy as well as economics.”