Dear Friend,

At the end of last year, we wrote to the leaders of UK political parties setting out how they can provide leadership for an honest general election. 

We’re pleased to announce that three of the parties—the Green Party, the Alliance Party, and Plaid Cymru—have agreed to commit to the standards we set out for honest campaigning during the next election, so that everyone can make an informed decision when they vote on polling day. This is a great start. 
 

You can support more campaign work like this ahead of a general election by donating £10.
I will donate £10
You can play a critical role in convincing more political parties to join the pledge by signing our petition to end deceptive campaign practices. The more of us there are, the louder our voices.
Best wishes, 

Chris Morris, CEO—Full Fact
FACT CHECKS

Dodgy Liberal Democrat leaflet fact checked

 
Supporters have been sending us examples of political leaflets as part of our demand to end deceptive campaigning. 

One example is a Lib Dem leaflet which contained a supportive quote about the party’s electoral prospects attributed to the Guardian—even though the quote was actually the headline of an opinion piece written by the Liberal Democrats’ own leader Sir Ed Davey. 
The leaflet is designed to resemble a newspaper, and is titled “Somerset Clarion”. It was delivered to our supporter, who lives in the constituency of Somerton and Frome, on 2 January 2024.

If you have any examples of campaign material you have received recently from political parties and you would like us to take a closer look, please send them to us by replying to this email.

 

BBC corrects article claiming 5% measles vaccination rate


A BBC News article claimed that a 5% vaccination rate was an explanation for a rise in measles cases in the West Midlands. Citing the UK Health Security Agency describing Birmingham, a report on BBC Radio 4’s Six O’Clock News also said: “The agency said that in some of the city's neighbourhoods, the rate was as low as 5%."

Low vaccination rates may well explain this outbreak, but no measure of measles vaccine coverage is lower than 75% in local authorities in the West Midlands.
 
 

Resignation letter repeats misleading 100,000 migrants deal claim


In their joint resignation letter as deputy chairs of the Conservative party, Lee Anderson MP and Brendan Clarke-Smith MP repeated a misleading claim about how a future Labour government would “bring around 100,000 extra asylum seekers as part of a deal with the European Union.''

We’ve seen variations of this claim made at least 15 times by Conservative MPs or on the party’s social media accounts over the last few months.  We’ve written to them—including to Mr Anderson on a previous occasion—asking them to stop using this figure, but have received no response.

 
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