“A half-truth is the most cowardly of lies.” *

Theresa May recently stated that a police officer who joined the force in 2010 is now 32%, or £9000, better off. Private Eye has analysed this assertion and has - astonishingly - discovered that you have to take it with a large dose of salt. She had omitted to include the following information (an oversight, no doubt):

• These figures ignore inflation.
• They include yearly increments, which are not pay rises as such.
• The date of 2010 allows her to exclude those who joined after 2013 when the starting rate for police constables was slashed from £24,204 to £19,773, with corresponding incremental reductions.

Consequently the pay of the post-2013 intake is thousands of pounds lower than that of the recruits of 2010. As the Eye drily observes, this claim "comes straight from the Department for Misinformation."

Q: Who was the Home Secretary responsible for cutting police starting rates in 2013? 

A: Theresa May.

* Mark Twain.