Reality Check

BBC

Former prime minister Tony Blair was on Today this morning talking about how the Brexit process was damaging the economy.

He pointed to the Office for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) forecast for the next five years, which was published at the time of the Budget in November, and said that the pattern of sub-2% growth over that period had not happened for decades.

The OBR is indeed predicting growth of below 2% every year from 2018 to 2022. That's only happened once since records began in 1948, but it was quite recent.

Between 2007, when Mr Blair stepped down as prime minister, and 2011, there were five years of sub-2% growth, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The figures were: -0.5%, -4.2%, 1.7%, 1.5% and 1.5%.

BBC

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling is quoted in this morning's Times saying that rail fares rose faster under Labour.

Using the Office of Rail and Road's Rail Fare Index, we can check whether this is true and in cash terms it turns out that rail fares rose by an average of about 4% a year while Labour was in power between 1997 and 2010. They have been going up more slowly, at an average of about 3% a year since then. This is also the case if you adjust for inflation.

But it's a different story if you adjust for earnings. Between 1997 and 2010, rail fares rose on average by about 0.75% faster than pay. Since then, the difference has been twice as big, with fares rising about 1.5% faster than pay.

BBC

There's been much discussion of railway funding today, with fares rising.

This is the chart you need to tell you how much the government is contributing.

It's the subsidy in pence per passenger kilometre, adjusted for inflation, going back to 2008-09.

It shows the result of the government deciding to get more of the cost of running the railways paid for by passengers rather than taxpayers.