My old gran was a very wise woman and had a saying to cover most of life’s ups and downs.

One of her favourites was ‘you can always tell when a politician is lying because you can see his lips move’.

Of course she was being wry and ironic. I suppose these days, what she would have said is that politicians put their own ‘spin’ on things.

But then again, she never saw Boris Johnson in action. It’s never pleasant calling someone a liar but sadly that’s the situation we are in with a prime minister who is socially distanced from the truth.

As it happens, I have far more time on my hands these days so to distract myself for a few hours, I tuned in to the first Prime Minister’s Questions of the New Year the other week in the hope of being enlightened, informed, or at the very least entertained. I say entertained because with Labour leader Kier Starmer having to self-isolate having contracted Covid for a second time, his place was taken by deputy Angela Rayner and she’s always good for a laugh or two.

Anyway, on to the subject of truthfulness, or to be more accurate, the absence of truthfulness. There were so many lies and inaccuracies, it’s actually difficult to know where to start.

So here we go. Boris Johnson denied previously saying that fears over inflation were ‘unfounded’. Rayner asked: “In October, the prime minister said that fears about inflation were unfounded…so, how did he get it so wrong?”

Johnson answered that he had “of course” said “no such thing”. Yet video footage exists of the prime minister making that very claim, telling Beth Rigby of Sky News on October 5 last year: “People have been worrying about inflation for a very long time. I’m looking at robust economic growth, and by the way, those fears have been unfounded.”

Johnson claimed Labour plans to rejoin the EU, which was another lie. Starmer has repeatedly and publicly said that he doesn’t think ‘there is a case for rejoining the EU’. And on a similar note, Johnson also said if it had been up to Labour, England would have been back in lockdown and not enjoying the ‘freedoms’ the Covid Plan B had brought.

The thing about lying is you have to have a good memory and I distinctly recall that it was only because Labour MPs supported the Plan B measures that they were brought into effect with a huge swathe of Tory MPs rebelling and voting against the measures when they were voted on in the House of Commons.

Now I suppose, being generous, all these lies could be dismissed as political banter or spin but there was one egregious lie that can’t be put in that category. It’s far too serious for that.

When the question of the stark increase in energy prices was raised, the prime minister twice claimed that 2.2 million people were being supported by the warm homes discount worth £140 per week.

That is simply not true.

The truth is that the warm homes discount is not worth ‘£140 a week’.

It is a one-off payment of £140 over the winter.

Now I’m prepared to accept that in the heat of battle, and cut and thrust of Prime Minister’s Questions, mistakes can be made and people can misspeak. Let’s face it, we’ve all tripped up from time to time and the prime minister is no exception.

But, and this is a big but, the ministerial code says: “It is of paramount importance that ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity.”

Johnson, it appears, was invited to correct the record and declined to do so, leaving the lies as part of the official record of proceedings. The lies stay on the record.

So what, then of the warm homes discount?

Is it actually £140 a week as the prime minister said and is still on the record, or is it actually £140 a year?

It would be really, really nice if the prime minister could actually tell us the truth. But then again, I’m not holding my breath waiting for a response.