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Dear Friend,
In the newsletter this week...
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But first...
On Wednesday 26 March the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivered her Spring Statement in the House of Commons.
We’ve taken a look at a number of claims from her statement, and the Conservative response. Here are some of the first claims we’ve looked at, but we’ll be adding to this round-up shortly.
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Our analysis includes a series of familiar claims from earlier in the political cycle, including Labour’s promise not to raise National Insurance (NI) on “working people”, and the government’s claim that they inherited a £22 billion black hole in the public finances.
Keep checking for updates over the next few hours as we add to our analysis of today’s events.
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Best wishes,
Craig, Digital Campaigns Manager—Full Fact
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We sometimes fact check a claim only to find it is missing an important piece of information. You might say we aren’t seeing the full picture.
This week a picture from an official government website has been circulating with users claiming it’s showing something it isn’t. At first glance, you might be forgiven for thinking Angela Rayner, the UK’s Deputy Prime Minister, has gifted a portrait of herself to a visiting Vietnamese politician.
The implication, and one that some commenters on social media have made, is that this is a politician indulging in a bit of self-promotion. This isn’t actually the case however, Ms Rayner was actually given the painting as a gift during Nguyễn Hoà Bình’s visit to the UK on 18 March.
Our golden rule here at Full Fact is that if you see an image that is making a big claim use a reverse image search on Google to try and find out where it has come from. This will help you decide if you are seeing the ‘full picture’.
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During Prime Minister’s Questions last week, the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said, when discussing the record of the previous Conservative government: “What did the Conservatives leave? Interest rates were at 11%.” And Seema Malhotra MP, the minister for migration and citizenship, made the same claim on Monday, in a now-deleted X post.
This claim is incorrect. The Bank of England’s Bank Rate (also known as the base rate), which influences the interest rates offered by other UK banks, has not been 11% since 1991.
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A post on X (formerly Twitter) shared the claim, as did a post on Facebook, which said: “Just heard on the telly that mps are giving themselves a 28% pay rise, this shows the arrogance of these people laughing in our face like pigs at the trough its unbelievable. [sic]”
But these posts are inaccurate—MPs will actually receive an increase of 2.8%, not 28%, in their basic salary from April.
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Full Fact’s most recent updates to our tracker of government policy.
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All the best,
Team Full Fact
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