Get fact checks about today's budget in our latest summary

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Dear Friend,

In the newsletter this week...
1. How big was the fiscal challenge facing Rachel Reeves? (#body1)
2. What does Labour mean when it talks about taxes on “working people”? (#body2)
3. How much are we spending on health? (#body3)
4. Also this week... (#morefacts)

But first...

Perhaps the most talked-about item in the run-up to today's Budget has been Labour’s manifesto commitment not to increase taxes on “working people”.

What that means in practice is forming a big part of the debate currently raging around the impact of increasing employers' National Insurance contributions.

In our summary today we’re looking at this and several other claims, including if Labour can claim they inherited a £22 billion “black hole” in the public finances when the Conservatives left office.
Read our summary ([link removed])
Over the last two weeks, we have produced several explainer articles relating to the Budget. Make sure to catch up on this content and more on our website ([link removed]) .
Best wishes,

Craig, Digital Campaigns Manager—Full Fact
P.S - There was understandably significant interest in our fact check last week about Amazon Alexa devices repeating misinformation ([link removed]) . You might be surprised to know that Alexa is still doing this … all is revealed in our follow-up article ([link removed]) .


** How big was the fiscal challenge facing Rachel Reeves? ([link removed])
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In the lead-up to the Autumn Budget we saw a number of seemingly conflicting claims being made about the size of a so-called ‘black hole’ in the UK’s public finances.

Over the past few months Labour has repeatedly claimed to have inherited a “£22 billion black hole” from the previous government. This has been disputed by the Conservative party.
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** What does Labour mean when it talks about “working people”? ([link removed])
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Discussion in advance of Labour’s Budget has centred on who it defines as “working people”. Today Labour said they wouldn’t increase rates of income tax, VAT or employee National Insurance contributions.

Over the last two weeks, Labour politicians have offered various different definitions, even though the phrase appeared 21 times in Labour’s general election manifesto.
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** How much are we spending on health? ([link removed])
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With NHS funding a key issue in advance of today’s budget, we’ve been looking at how much is currently spent on health.

Before the October 2024 Budget, government spending on health was high, by various measures, but there were also good reasons to believe that it was not high enough to meet demand.

Read more ([link removed])
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* ‘Illegal immigrants’ do not get £175 every week on a prepaid card ([link removed])
* Amazon’s Alexa has been giving more incorrect answers attributed to fact checkers ([link removed])
* Fake BBC article falsely claims Rachel Reeves has pledged to share ‘income from taxes’ ([link removed])
* Revitalised Online Safety Act should help fact checkers turn the tide on misinformation ([link removed])

Read our latest fact checks ([link removed])
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All the best,
Team Full Fact


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