Was minister right in veterans row with Vorderman?

Veterans' Affairs Minister Johnny Mercer says he is taking a break from X following a row with presenter Carol Vorderman.

They had spent days arguing on the social media platform about homelessness among veterans and whether Mr Mercer had promised to eradicate it in 2023.

So who was right?

On 27 December, the former Countdown numbers expert tweeted that «Mercer swore he'd END veterans' homelessness in 2023» and linked to a Guardian article saying that homelessness among veterans in England was up 14%.

Mr Mercer responded saying he had «made a very clear promise on ending veterans sleeping rough».

Ms Vorderman pointed towards an interview on LBC in February in which Mr Mercer said «we are going to end veterans' homelessness this year».

But in the interview he also said «by the end of this year, I don't want to see a single involuntarily sleeping rough homeless veteran in this country».

In December 2022, Mr Mercer launched a scheme called Operation Fortitude to help veterans find accommodation.

Since then, he's talked about both ending veterans' rough sleeping and ending veterans' homelessness.

In this tweet from January 2023, he said: «I'm deadly serious about ending veterans homelessness in the UK this year.»

A government press release explaining Operation Fortitude talked about tackling rough sleeping and homelessness among former armed forces personnel. It said the aim was «to ensure no veteran should sleep rough this Christmas, and veteran homelessness is ended in 2023».

The press release also referred to the pledge in the Veterans' Strategy Action Plan 2022-24 to end veteran rough sleeping within this Parliament. And that document is very clear that what it's talking about is rough sleeping.

The government says