Bridget Phillipson said this afternoon that new apprenticeship data since Labour came to power showed an increase on all metrics. A mundane tweet…
Badenoch jumped on it with a triumphant riposte, citing a report into 2023/24 data published yesterday:
These stats were to April 2024.
ALL under the last Conservative government.
Just like your growth ideas yesterday, the only good things Labour have to talk about are the ones Conservatives thought of or delivered. https://t.co/HxlrlNBLPu https://t.co/SvDvk2RKxN
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) January 30, 2025
The Conservatives account piled on as did Tories across the board. It took Guido about ten seconds to find the statistics dump that Phillipson was referring to, which was published today, and indeed contains positive data for apprenticeships from August to October 2024. Which is since Labour came to power. Got to check this stuff properly…
UPDATE: A government source tells Guido: “In addition to being a worse performer at PMQs than Jeremy Corbyn, Kemi Badenoch apparently is incapable of reading graphics on a gov.uk website. Leaving aside that the data relates to apprenticeships that started after our stunning election victory, the Tories know they have a dismal record on apprenticeships, so God knows why she thinks she can claim this as their victory. Kemi’s shown yet again that she’s a steak sandwich short of a picnic.”
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”