Some Fullfact.org fact checkng of politicians claims since a UK general election was announced

I've taken Fullfact.org ‘s corrections to factually incorrect or partial statements from UK political parties, and amended the original text in the claims by politicians so the text corrects/clarifies what was claimed.

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on Unsplash

Labour Party

On 23/5/24, claimed “seven and a half million cases people are on waiting lists, about some 6.3 million people”

On 27/5/24 Sir Keir Starmer’s made his first major campaign speech  The claims he made are in black font, the strikethrough and red font corrects/clarifies his claims

On the governments approach to Rwanda he claimed “it’s cost £600 million, (Includes some future costs)” and that the “Prime Minister has spent forecast spend is £600 million”. But part of this figure appears to refer to future costs, rather than the amount that has already been spent.

That the “chaos” under the Conservatives was “hitting every working family to the tune of £5,000, compared to a hypothetical scenario”.

Repeated a claim “that the UK army is the smallest it has been since the Napoleonic Wars size is comparable to the period shortly after the Napoleonic wars. “

Claimed that taxes are "were higher in 2022/23 than at any time over the last 70 years since the war".

 

Conservative Party

23/5/24, during an interview Prime Minister Rishi Sunak claimed the text in black font, the red font corrects/clarifies his claims.

 “the economy is growing faster than almost any other major country including the United States if you look at the latest quarterly GDP growth for G7 countries, but the UK has seen comparatively slower growth since the pandemic than most other G7 countries, including the US.”.

On LBC on 24/5/24 energy secretary Claire Coutinho claimed that “Labour did not complete build any [nuclear power stations] in their time in government and neither have any been finished since the Conservatives came into office in 2010”.

In a 24/5/24 post on X Rishi Sunak claimed: “Since I became Prime Minister, net migration has fallen by 10%, but it is four times higher than in 2019, when our manifesto said we’d bring’ ‘overall numbers’ down.”

In a 26/5/24 TV interview, Home secretary James Cleverly was asked about figures showing a 7% increase in knife crime. In response, he claimed the text in black font.“If you took Labour-run London out of the equation, that figure would be down up for year ending December 2023 in England & Wales.” The strikethrough and red font correct/clarify his claim.

27/5/24 online election adverts claimed the text in black font, the red font clarifies the claim  “small boat crossings are coming down” and “small boats [are] down 36% (comparing 2023 to 2022) but as at 26/5/24 are up 38% compared to the same period last year”.

On 28/5/24, during TV and radio interviews, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Mel Stride repeated the following claim in black font, that the government having reduced National Insurance contributions by one third, “is worth a tax cut of £900 to an average earner, but once all tax changes since 2021 are factored in, the saving is some £340 in 2024/25.  Below average earners will actually be worse off.”  (the red font corrects/clarifies his claim)