No, Supreme Court judges aren’t getting paid by the EU

We’ve been asked to check a claim on Facebook that 9 of the eleven Supreme Court judges who made a ruling on Boris Johnson’s suspension of parliament “receive stipends of £175,000+ from the EU”.

We’ve seen no evidence that a payment of this type exists. Two of the judges work ad hoc for the European Court of Human Rights—but this is not the same as the EU.

Only one of the two has come to the European Human Rights court, and that has only been twice in the last four years. They get paid around £444 per day for this.

Costly claim

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FACTCHECK

This quote attributed to Boris Johnson is not real

A widely-shared tweet claims Boris Johnson said in his Conservative party conference speech that "we have wiped out the national debt". The quote was also attributed to him in the Daily Express.
Mr Johnson did not say this. The phrase in the tweet is not in the pre-released draft of his conference speech either.

He actually said: “it was this Conservative government that tackled the debt and the deficit".

Government debt (the total the government owes from borrowing) has continued to rise since the Conservatives came into office in 2010, but the deficit (how much the government borrows each year) has fallen in recent years.

We’ve asked the Express to remove the inaccurate quote, but have yet to get a response.

Fact deficit

FACTCHECK

Jeremy Corbyn’s claim about UK wealth is flawed

In Jeremy Corybn’s Labour conference speech, he claimed that "14 million people are living in poverty in ours, the fifth richest country in the world”.

He was correct about poverty numbers, but his figure on wealth is flawed.

The UK is either the sixth- or ninth-richest country in the world based on the total GDP (that’s the total value of all goods and services).

But Mr Corbyn's point seems to be about inequality and the potential to redistribute the UK’s wealth more evenly. For this, GDP per person would be a better measure as we need to know how wealthy the average person is.

In terms of GDP per person, the UK is the 20th-or 27th-wealthiest country in the world.

Depends on how you measure it

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FACTCHECK

Prison sentences: extending sentences already occurs in some cases

At the Conservative party conference last week, justice secretary Robert Buckland pledged to make it mandatory for the most serious violent and sexual offenders to serve two thirds of their sentence in prison (and not half the sentence as is normal).

But judges can already hand down two thirds sentences in certain cases, for example if it’s one of 100 specific offences of if the person poses a risk to the public.

The Conservatives' proposal differs only in that it applies to a slightly different group of offences (those which carry a maximum of life), and there is no requirement for a judge to decide if a criminal poses a risk to the public.

More context needed

FACTCHECK

Over 200,000 elderly people experienced domestic abuse in 2017/18

A Daily Mail headline claimed that 200,000 elderly people are abused “by partners”.

This is not what Age UK’s report (which the article was based on) says. Around 210,000 people aged 60-74 in England and Wales were estimated to have been victims of domestic abuse in 2017/18. Of those, 152,000 were victims of abuse by a partner.

The newspaper has agreed to publish a correction note in a forthcoming print edition.

However, the data is likely to underestimate the true extent of domestic abuse, as statistics are compiled through individuals answering questions in a ‘self-completion’ survey.

It’s likely much higher

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