as he claimed on a number of occasions that the number on payrolls was higher than before the pandemic. but that was because a lot of the self employed people gave up self employment during the pandemic or afterwards and became employees on payrolls instead. the letter from the director general having had no impact, the chair of the uk statistics authority, that then chair wrote to the prime minister on the 24th of february 2022. dear prime minister, he wrote. it is wrong to claim that there are no more people and work than before the pandemic began. the increase in the number of people who are on payrolls is more than offset by the reduction in the number of people who are self employed. so at the liaison committee in march, i asked the prime minister whether he accepted that correction in sir david s letter. his reply wasn t straightforward, but the transcript of that meeting does show that mr johnson understood fully and clearly what had happened in the labour market. he d