PM repeats claim about fall in poverty since 2010

24 January 2024

At Prime Minister’s Questions today, we heard a familiar claim from Rishi Sunak. He said “since 2010 there are 1.7 million fewer people in poverty”.

Mr Sunak has used this figure at a number of previous PMQs. As we’ve explained, it’s correct based on one measure of poverty, but other measures give a different picture. 

The Prime Minister’s figure matches the number of people in absolute poverty after housing costs, which fell by 1.7 million between 2009/10 and 2021/22, according to government data. 

The number in relative poverty after housing costs, however, is up by 900,000 over the same period.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation report which was the subject of the question to the Prime Minister uses this measure.

We wrote more about the different ways of measuring poverty in this fact check about a different claim last year.

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