In one of his many recent TV or radio appearances the Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely, has once again said something that is not true.
On Monday lunchtime, he appeared on BBC R4’s The World at One, during which he stated the Isle of Wight had in the last 60 years “pretty much doubled our population”.
This simply isn’t the case.
Seely: We are playing our role – and then some
Bob Seely had been asked about Simon Clarke MP’s views – “The Conservative Party will die, if it does not address this issue [house building], because it simply will not get support from younger voters.”
Seely said he completely agreed with Clarke – he said,
“If Simon wants to build many tens of thousands more houses in his constituency: in his region: he is very welcome to do so.”
He then went on to say,
“The argument I would say, from places like the Isle of Wight, is that in the last 60 years we’ve pretty much doubled our population.
“So we are playing our role – and then some.”
The facts
The 1961 Census (the closest we could get to 60 years ago) recorded 95,752 residents on the Isle of Wight.
The 2021 Census recorded 140,459 residents.
That’s an increase of less than half – clearly a long way from doubling.
Seely: “Don’t always have time to double check in my mind what facts I am using”
News OnTheWight asked Mr Seely where he’d got his figures from and how what he said on national radio is so different from the official source of population figures.
He replied,
“Yes, guilty, it was a slip of the tongue, apologies, I meant to say – as I normally do – nearly 50 per cent (46.7 per cent) in 60 years, which is accurate.
“If interviews are at short notice, I am occasionally slightly rushed and don’t always have time to double check in my mind what facts I am using, especially if I don’t know exactly what I am going to be asked. I always try to get them right, occasionally I don’t.”
He went on to say,
“I am always careful to source my facts as well as I can, as it’s clearly important to do so.”
Other recent incidents
Bob Seely was recently caught out on BBC’s Newsnight after denying he used ‘Kangaroo Court’ slur. He had forgotten he called the Privileges Committee a Kangaroo Court, just ten days before, on the same programme.
Then he was accused by Full Fact of quoting inaccurate and misleading information in the House of Commons, by repeating something that he had already been corrected on the previous year.
