This week we’ve been looking into claims made about Rishi Sunak’s record as PM and monitoring new misleading videos from the Israel-Gaza conflict

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FACT CHECKS


** Is the asylum backlog ‘falling rapidly’? ([link removed])
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On 22nd October Home Office minister Robert Jenrick claimed the “backlog in asylum cases is now falling rapidly”, with a variation of the claim reported in The Times and politics.co.uk.

Mr Jenrick was likely referring to the “legacy backlog” figures. These figures are a subset of the total number of outstanding asylum applications which the government has said it is aiming to clear by the end of the year.


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** Video of Rishi Sunak’s first year achievements fact checked ([link removed])
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Last week Rishi Sunak celebrated a year as Prime Minister by launching a video on social media. The wording of the video leaves it a little unclear whether the highlights listed are achievements or ongoing policy priorities. We took a closer look:
1. The video refers to “1 million new homes”, which was a Conservative manifesto commitment, but this isn’t a target which has been reached yet, and it doesn’t only refer to homes built in the period Mr Sunak has been Prime Minister. By our assessment the government has not achieved this target and would need to build an additional 312,610 homes before the general election to meet it.
2. It mentioned that the government has recruited 20,000 new police officers. We’ve written previously about placing these figures in the proper context, including the fall in police officer numbers before 2017, and the number of police officers relative to the total population.
3. Another highlight listed is “delivering 12 UK freeports”. There are currently 12 freeport locations in the UK, but not all are fully operational, and some were announced prior to Mr Sunak entering Downing Street.

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** Video of little girl taught to laugh at explosion sounds was filmed in Syria in 2020 not Gaza this year ([link removed])
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A video that has been shared 13,000 times on X (formerly Twitter) shows a man apparently telling his daughter to laugh when bombs are dropped, with the caption: “A Palestinian father tells his daughter to laugh every time she hears an Israeli airstrike so that she doesn’t get scared.”

The video was filmed in Syria in 2020, and shows a Syrian father and his daughter. We often see misleading images and videos on social media in the wake of significant global events such as the conflict in Israel and Gaza, including other footage that was actually filmed in Syria.


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MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
* Three Parliamentary constituencies have majority Muslim populations, not 30 ([link removed])
* No evidence government minister said Scotland isn’t a country ([link removed])
* Photo of pensioner used in ‘missing man’ hoax ([link removed])

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