Emma Thelwell

It’s very strange. Most politicians reckon that once bitten by FactCheck, twice shy. Not so the PM. We’ve caught him out on his boast on private sector jobs before but today he was at it again. He claimed half a million more private sector jobs were created since the election. He’s wrong, and here’s why.

David Cameron argued today that there are 50,000 more women in work than the time of the election, but Mr Miliband maintains that things haven’t been this bad since the Conservatives were last in government. Who’s right?

Revolting peers have landed their first blows on Andrew Lansley. Today they’re starting a marathon two-day debate on the health and social care bill, and the government is worried. The Department of Health has hit back with a “mythbusting” dossier. Will it succeed? Over to the team.

Metal theft has caused at least six deaths, 50 injuries, 60 fires and – a contender for stat of the year here – a total of 673 days of train delays in the last three years. But unless personally blighted by it – as Jon Snow was over the weekend – you’d be forgiven for being oblivious to the problem. Graham Jones, MP for Hyndburn in Lancashire, says it was the “constant concerns” of his wife and son – who both work for Electricity North West – that brought it to his attention. He is not alone in calling for a reform of the Metal Theft Act of 1964, which was slammed in the Lords last month for being “still legally in the age of Steptoe and Son”. But are we really dealing with a cable crime wave or has Mr Jones got his wires crossed? FactCheck dons its hard hat.

With the family purse-strings currently stretched to the limit, any extra pennies to help cover childcare costs are gratefully received. So today’s move from the government to pump £300m into the Child Tax Credit system, reaching 80,000 more families, sounds like great news – doesn’t it? FactCheck gets out its red marker pen.

Calling for sanity in the UK’s immigration system, Theresa May said the Human Rights Act “needs to go”. Listing ludicrous examples, she said one man was allowed to stay because he had a cat. But is there a whisker of truth to it? FactCheck gets its claws out.

FactCheck is a bit mystified. Labour’s press office pinged out a preview of Yvette Cooper’s speech this morning, which obviously we leapt on with our fine toothed factchecking comb. And something caught our eye. The release, published on Politics Home, announced that Yvette Cooper would say at Conference today that Labour was “the first government in a hundred years where crime went down and not up”.

Tessa Jowell tried to brush off today’s humiliating slip in the leadership polls with the retort that no political party does well when the economy’s in the doldrums. “Benign times of growth are always easier for political parties,” she said, adding that it’s both a challenge and an opportunity for Ed Miliband. The news that the Tories have overtaken Labour for the first time since last October came as a huge blow to Mr Miliband as he delivered his keynote speech. According to a ComRes poll, the Conservatives are on 37 per cent, with Labour just behind at 36 per cent and the Lib Dems at 12 per cent. But Ms Jowell says this has more to do with people withdrawing from politics, than signing up to the Tories. FactCheck calls up the pollsters.

Ed Balls doesn’t really do contrition. He flirted with the idea on the Today programme this morning when he said sorry for the failure of banking regulations, and admitted that not every pound had been well spent by Labour.

As leaders of the world convene in New York for the UN’s annual assembly, Jamie has thrown his Food Revolution under their noses. But is he right that obesity kills more than under-nutrition? FactCheck investigates.

It’s a bullish claim for a party with miserable poll rates. But the Lib Dems are insistent: things are on the up. “At least they flipping well better had be,” says Tim Farron. Is their Deputy Leader telling them the whole story? FactCheck tots up the stats.

The PM battled to explain the grim news today that unemployment has suffered its largest quarterly increase in two years, jumping by 80,000 between May and June. As he looked to private sector jobs growth for salvation, Mr Cameron was lambasted by Ed Miliband who said: “His claim, and the Chancellor’s central claim – that you can cut the public sector and the private sector would make up the difference – isn’t happening.” Who’s right?

Calls for political reform spun out of the expenses scandal of 2009 and hurtled towards last year’s general election, with all three major parties promising change in their manifestos. Labour proposed a non-partisan parliamentary boundary review that would look at the rules for the redistribution of seats, as well as an Alternative Vote (AV) referendum. Its manifesto said: “The cost of politics to the taxpayer must be minimised but we reject using this as an excuse to gerrymander constituency boundaries in the interest of one political party.” The Tories meanwhile championed a 10 per cent cut in the number of MPs, while the Lib Dem manifesto stated that it would making voting fairer by introducing Single Transferable Vote (STV) for elections, the number of MPs could be cut from 650 to 500. We’ve already said no to AV, so now it’s down to the boundary changes to kick start reform. But is it fair, or are the Tories manipulating the system?

After the funeral of Mark Duggan today, whose death sparked the riots a month ago, it is understood that police forces from Cornwall to Northumbria will finally leave the capital – ending four weeks of unprecedented extra support for the Metropolitan Police. Will the government pay up, or will the police foot the bill? FactCheck investigates.

Twenty leading economists have called on the government to scrap its 50p tax rate for high earners, warning that it will do “lasting damage” to the economy. Is the 50p tax rate worth it? FactCheck investigates