Boris Johnson’s job figures don’t add up – Stephen Knight (London Assembly Liberal Democrats)

London Assembly Liberal Democrats <[email protected]>

Boris Johnson’s job figures don’t add up – Stephen Knight

May 23, 2012 2:37 PM

Stephen Knight, Liberal Democrat Londonwide Assembly Member

The Mayor of London failed to defend his claims to be creating 200,000 new jobs over the next four years when challenged at City Hall today by the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Stephen Knight.

Boris Johnson was elected on a 9 point plan, with his third pledge to Londoners being the creation of "200,000 new jobs over the next four years".

At the first Mayor's Question Time session since his re-election Boris Johnson was unable to defend or explain how the pledge to deliver the promised new jobs would be delivered.

Speaking after today's Mayor Question Time Stephen Knight said:

"When you examine the figures it is clear that Boris Johnson is claiming 104,000 of these new jobs would be created through his housing programme, however in reality there will be only about 25,000 people employed each year. In order to claim this as 100,000 new jobs the Mayor has counted each person employed per year as a new job. This is as daft as saying the Mayor of London himself will be holding four jobs over the next four years."

"The claims about new jobs also fall apart as it is clear that the Mayor will hardly deliver any more new homes than have been built over the last four years of his Mayorality. The Mayor's housing programme will deliver less than 200 additional jobs in the next 4 years, with the programme largely maintaining existing jobs.

"Not long ago the Mayor claimed 'public trust in statistics is critically important in a democracy'. It is time the Mayor practiced what he preached and stopped peddling dishonest statistics."

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Boris Johnson specific pledge to create 200,000 new jobs over the next four years can be seen in his manifesto Growing the London economy:

http://www.backboris2012.com/system/storage/60/31/7/1754/Boris-Johnson-2012-Economy-Manifesto.pdf