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In the newsletter this week...
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Full Fact has examined three claims made at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) this week. Two examine Labour and the Conservatives' economic record in power, while the third looks at Labour’s pledge to build 1.5 million new homes.

Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, said that the Conservatives left “the fastest growing economy in the G7”. Similar claims last year from the Conservatives appeared to be based on combined GDP growth data for the first two quarters of 2024, which showed this to be the case. Following revisions though, the same data now suggests the UK and US were neck-and-neck over this period. 

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said the government will “rebuild Britain by delivering 1.5 million new homes”. Full Fact has been monitoring this pledge as part of our Government Tracker project.
Find out more...
Finally, Mr Starmer twice claimed Labour inherited a “£22 billion black hole” from the Conservatives. This is a familiar and contested claim. We’ve produced a long-form explainer to provide additional information about why Labour have made the claim, why the Conservatives reject it and what the experts are saying.
Best wishes, 

Craig, Digital Campaigns Manager—Full Fact
FACT CHECKS

Has the OECD said the UK is on track to become the ‘fastest growing economy in Europe’?
Culture secretary Lisa Nandy MP claimed that the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had said the UK was “on track to become the fastest growing economy in Europe”.

This claim doesn’t appear to be supported by the OECD’s latest projections.
Read more

Was David Lammy right to claim 45,000 Russian troops died in November?
Foreign secretary David Lammy MP claimed that Russia had “lost 45,000 troops, dead, in November alone” in the war with Ukraine.

The 45,000 figure actually appears to refer to an estimate shared by the Ministry of Defence for the total number of Russian casualties in the war with Ukraine in November, including both those killed and those who were wounded. There is always considerable uncertainty over casualty figures from war zones, however.
Read more
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Video of fire surrounding the Hollywood sign isn’t real
A video has been shared on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) with claims that it shows fire surrounding the famous Hollywood sign in Los Angeles.

This didn’t happen, and the footage isn’t real. Using the TikTok handle in the video’s watermark, Full Fact traced the footage back to a now-deleted post from 9 January. The video was posted by a YouTube channel with a similar username on the same day, with the title “New fire ignites in Hollywood Hills”.
Read more

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