Reality Check

With the PM due to face questions from the Liaison Committee about the government's response to the coronavirus pandemic and the economy, could they ask him about NHS pay?

Once again at PMQs, Boris Johnson and Keir Starmer clashed over pay increases for NHS staff.

Starmer said that “nurses are getting a pay cut".

Recently, the government recommended that NHS staff, including nurses, should receive a 1% pay increase in the upcoming year.

But this is not the final decision and an independent pay review body will now look at evidence supplied by the government as well as other bodies, such as unions and employers.

Most other public sector employees will have their pay frozen this year due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Whilst a 1% pay increase would be an increase in cash terms, the Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts that inflation will rise to 1.5% this year. So a below inflation pay increase means their salary will be worth less.

The prime minister responded by saying the government had “increased their starting salary by 12.8%".

It is true that between 2018 and 2021, a nurse's starting salary increased by that much as part of a three-year pay deal, but this figure doesn’t account for inflation.

It also ignores the fact that a decade of pay caps and freezes means that, once we account for inflation, a nurses starting salary is actually worth about 3% less than in 2010.

Reality Check

At PMQs earlier, Labour leader Keir Starmer raised Monday’s announcement of a reduction to the size of the Army, saying Boris Johnson had promised at the last election not to cut the armed forces “in any form”.

He’s right – in November 2019, at the launch of the Conservative manifesto - when answering questions after his speech - Mr Johnson said: “We will not be cutting our armed services in any form – we will be maintaining the size of our armed services”.

This was reported by several papers, including The Sun, external, which also included the video of Mr Johnson saying it.

But that promise wasn’t in the 2019 Conservative manifesto.

On Monday, the Defence Secretary Ben Wallace announced that: “I have therefore taken the decision to reduce the size of the Army from today’s current strength of 76,500 trade trained personnel to 72,500 by 2025”.

In his reply to Mr Starmer, the prime minister spoke of increased defence spending. There was a pledge in the 2019 manifesto, external to “increase the [defence] budget by at least 0.5 per cent above inflation every year of the new Parliament”.

The spending plan for the Ministry of Defence announced last November will achieve that on average until 2025, based on inflation forecasts from the Office for Budget Responsibility.

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The Palestinian territories have only just started vaccinating, while Covid cases there have surged.

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People belonging to ethnic minorities are less likely to have been vaccinated, despite being more likely to develop Covid.

The Tanzanian authorities have not published data on coronavirus infections or deaths for many months.

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Reality Check

Despite growing evidence to the contrary, Tanzania's government continues to downplay the impact of coronavirus on the country.

There is also speculation that President Magufuli is himself suffering from Covid and receiving hospital treatment, although the government has denied this.

There are no publicly available records for recent deaths in Tanzania, and no information has been released on the impact of coronavirus since May last year, when 500 cases and 20 deaths were reported up to that point.

The authorities have insisted there is little to worry about, and have taken tough action against those they accuse of spreading "false information".

BBC's Reality Check has been investigating.

Researchers have identified tactics including the use of high-profile “wolf warriors” and fake social media accounts.

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Reality Check

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs that Sir Keir Starmer voted against the 2019 long-term plan for the NHS, after the Labour leader referred to it.

That is not correct – there were no votes on the NHS Funding Bill 2019-20 during its main stages through parliament.

Sir Keir had referred to the plan, saying that it committed the government to a 2.1% pay rise, external for the NHS.

The government has now recommended that NHS staff in England should receive a 1% pay increase this year.

On Tuesday, the head of NHS England, Sir Simon Stevens told a committee of MPs that the plan had indeed assumed a 2.1% rise.

But he also said "things have changed" since then and that it should now be up to the pay-review body.

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