Boris Johnson fact checker: The truth about the next PM’s most contentious claims

Rolling guide to sort fact from fiction

Boris Johnson's false claim about kipper smokers being forced by “Brussels bureaucrats” to include ice packs with their products was the latest in a line of misleading or incorrect statements made by the likely next prime minister.

The Tory leadership frontrunner’s claim at a hustings that producers in the Isle of Man were “furious” at the extra costs caused by EU red tape turned out to be false, as the case in question was “purely a UK national competence”, according to the European Commission.

It follows his widely derided, bus-side claim about spending an extra £350m a week on the NHS during the Brexit referendum campaign, and his denial that he had said “anything about Turkey” when in fact he had co-signed a letter stating that “the only way to avoid having common borders with Turkey is to vote Leave and take back control”.

And in 2004 he responded to reports he had had an affair while Conservative Party vice-chairman as an “inverted pyramid of piffle”. The stories were true, it was later found.

Here, The Independent will provide a rolling list of the more contentious statements made by 10 Downing Street’s expected next resident, starting with the fishy tale about herring.

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Date: 17 July 2019

Claim: EU rules were eating into the profits of kipper smokers on the Isle of Man by forcing them to include ice packs with their products when shipping

Verdict: False

Anca Paduraru, a European Commission food safety spokesperson, told a Brussels press conference: “The case described by Mr Johnson falls outside the scope of EU legislation and is purely a UK national competence.

“When it comes to the specific case mentioned, while the food business operator has an obligation to meet the microbiological requirements – the safety requirements – to ensure the safety of its food, however the sale of products from the food business operator to the final consumer is not covered by EU legislation on food hygiene."

Date: 25 July 2019

Claim: Nicola Sturgeon replaced Alex Salmond as first minister of Scotland "as far as I know, without a vote".

Verdict: False

Ms Sturgeon was elected as SNP leader in 2014 unopposed, following the departure of her predecessor. However Ms Sturgeon won a vote in the Scottish parliament in November 2014 with 66 votes, Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson got 15 and there were 39 abstentions.