Johnson’s UK Conservatives in 2019: 3 of 4 numeric pledges met by the deadline. Homebuilding is at 70% of the pledge
- Living wage £10.50109%
- 20k more police officers105%
- 50k more nurses102%
- 300k homes a year70%
Fact at the deadline, % of the promised number
3 of 4 numeric pledges met by the deadline. Homebuilding is at 70% of the pledge.
20,951 police officers were recruited and nurses grew by 51,245. England got 208.6k new homes in 2024 against a goal of 300k a year.
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Before the 2019 election Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party pledged more police and nurses, a higher minimum wage and more new homes. Here are all its numeric «at least» goals beside what came out.
A row is one promise: who, what and by when. The question is whether at least half came true. Answer Yes or No, or just open the answer: each row gets its outcome and what actually came of it, the card a stamp counting those that came true. Quotes and links to the facts are below.
- Living wage £10.50 — Conservative Party (Boris Johnson), 2019 £ an hour
promised 11 by 2024; fact 11 (109%). From April 2024 the National Living Wage was £11.44 for everyone aged 21+; the £10.50 forecast was exceeded and the Low Pay Commission considers the two-thirds-of-median goal reached.
GOV.UK, National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates
- 20k more police officers — Conservative Party (Boris Johnson), 2019 officers above the baseline (31 March)
promised 20,000 by 2023; fact 20,951 (105%). By 31 March 2023 the programme had added 20,951 officers over the baseline; England and Wales had 149,572 officers, more than at the 2010 peak.
Home Office, Police officer uplift, England and Wales, quarterly update to 31 March 2023
- 50k more nurses — Conservative Party (Boris Johnson), 2019 FTE nurses above September 2019
promised 50,000 by 2024; fact 51,245 (102%). In September 2023 the NHS in England had 51,245 more FTE nurses than in September 2019, six months before the deadline.
- 300k homes a year — Conservative Party (Boris Johnson), 2019 thousand homes a year
promised 300 by 2025; fact 209 (70%). The peak was 248.6 thousand in 2019/20; 2024/25 saw 208.6 thousand against 300 thousand a year.
MHCLG, Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England: 2024 to 2025, Figure 1
Goals: the 2019 Conservative manifesto «Get Brexit Done». Fact: the Home Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, GOV.UK minimum wage rates and the housing ministry (MHCLG). Outcome: «came true» — the promised number reached by the deadline («about» within 5%), an event happened before the end of the year promised; «exceeded» — with room to spare; «nearly» — short by no more than 10%; «late» — reached, but after the deadline; «did not come true» — not reached; «came true, then undone» — reached, then reversed. The deadline is the end of the year named.
The deadlines for police (March 2023) and nurses (March 2024), and counting nurses as full-time equivalents, were set by the government after the election. Police numbers fell by about 20k in 2010–2017, so the uplift mostly restored the old level; the count is England and Wales. About a quarter of the extra nurses were hired abroad, and many vacancies remained. The wage goal is two thirds of median earnings; £10.50 was a 2019 forecast; the overshoot came largely from 2022–2023 inflation. “Mid-2020s” for homes is the 2024/25 financial year; England only; lockdowns stopped sites in 2020.
A question for this picture
Why did the pledges about hiring people come true and the pledge about building did not?