Suella Braverman’s claim in Parliament refers only to the “legacy” backlog of asylum decisions

9 Jun 2023 | Full Fact's weekly news
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FACT CHECK
Home secretary must correct misleading asylum claim

In Parliament on Monday, home secretary Suella Braverman claimed that “the asylum initial decision backlog is down by 17,000”.

This is not correct in terms of the total number of asylum cases awaiting an initial decision. Home Office data shows the number of applications awaiting an initial decision has actually increased since the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak outlined a five-point plan to tackle the asylum backlog in December 2022.

The Home Office has since clarified that the 17,000 figure refers to the backlog of initial decisions relating to asylum applications made before 28 June 2022, though this wasn’t made clear in Ms Braverman’s comments.

After being challenged on her claim by Labour MPs later in the debate, Ms Braverman said: “We are on track to deliver on reducing the backlog of initial decisions and the legacy backlog. Those are decisions that have been waiting in the system up until July or June last year. Those are the backlogs that we are working on.”

This isn’t the first time the government has made potentially misleading claims about the asylum backlog. In recent months we’ve written about Mr Sunak failing to provide evidence for his claim that the caseload of the asylum backlog was down by 6,000, as well as further comments made about the asylum backlog made by the home secretary.

The use of official information without appropriate context and caveats can damage public trust in both official information and politicians. Ministers should correct false or misleading claims made in Parliament as soon as possible, in keeping with the Ministerial Code. We have written to the home secretary to ask that she does this at the earliest opportunity.

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FACT CHECK


** Video of explosion at Nova Kakhovka Dam is from 2022 ([link removed])
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Following the recent breaching of the Nova Kakhovka Dam, near Kherson in Ukraine, a video showing an attack on the dam has been shared hundreds of times on social media.

The CCTV footage, which has also been shared a number of times on Facebook, shows the dam at night, before the screen suddenly flashes white. This is then followed by what appears to be at least two explosions, with clouds of debris clearly visible.

Some of the posts we’ve seen are tagged “#Breaking” or “#BreakingNews”, suggesting that this clip shows the moment that the dam, located in Russian-controlled southern Ukraine, was recently breached. (According to BBC reports, it’s not clear exactly when the dam was first damaged but there appears to have been “a change to the flow of water” on Tuesday 6 June.) Other posts don’t give any indication of when the incident occurred.

But the video circulating currently on social media is not recent. It was actually published widely in November 2022, after a separate incident at the Nova Kakhovka Dam.

This is not the first time old footage has been used to make claims about the conflict in Ukraine. Full Fact has fact checked the use of a number of misleading videos in the past, including footage of an old Russian military parade and soldiers in Afghanistan in 2021—both claimed to be of the current situation in Ukraine.

False or misleading claims online have the potential to harm individuals, groups and democratic processes and institutions. Online claims can spread fast and far, and are difficult to contain and correct.

Misleading images and videos are some of the most common kinds of misinformation we see online, but they can sometimes be hard to spot. It’s always worth checking if a picture shows what the post says it does before you share it—we have written a guide on how to do so here ([link removed]) .

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Help us reach millions of people with good, reliable information. We’re looking for an expert in social media to help us tackle the spread of misleading claims and engage and grow our supporter base.

This is a full time, remote first role, with an office available in Central London and regular team meetings in the office. We are happy to talk about flexible working, including part time.

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FACT CHECK


** Claims about King Charles’s inheritance need context ([link removed])
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Posts shared multiple times on Facebook and Twitter say: “Just a quick reminder King Charles inherited £650m tax free, gets £350 million a year tax free from the tax payer and has an estate worth £22 billion that's never taxed. But he still can't pay for his own coronation [sic].”

Some of the posts go on to say that “250 million of our money” was spent on the King’s coronation, which took place on 6 May.

These claims are misleading or missing context and don’t tell the full story of the Royal Family’s finances. These types of claims can spread quickly and cause people to have beliefs based on a false understanding and inaccurate information.

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MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
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* Magna Carta doesn’t mean you can ‘legally overthrow’ a ‘tyrannical’ government ([link removed])
* ‘Pride installation' on Arc de Triomphe is animated video ([link removed])

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