We run through everything that is known so far about the series of parties that were allegedly held late last year in Downing Street and Westminster.

17 Dec 2021 | Full Fact's weekly news
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TIMELINE
What we know about the alleged Downing Street parties so far ([link removed])

The biggest political story of the last month has been a series of reports on parties allegedly held last year in Downing Street and Westminster at a time when strict Covid-19 restrictions were in force.

The main reports centre around eight gatherings in total—four at Number 10 Downing Street, plus three more in Government departments and one in Conservative party headquarters.

Much of the coverage so far has been based on political journalists’ off-the-record sources, so we don’t yet know the full story of what happened. The government has repeatedly insisted all rules were followed, but it’s left many questions unanswered, and the Cabinet Secretary has now launched an investigation.

We explain what parties are alleged to have taken place, what the government’s said at different points—and crucially what the law said at the time
What do we know? ([link removed])
FACT CHECK
There aren’t 10,000 patients in hospital with Covid in Wales ([link removed])

On Sky News on 12 December Dr Ruth Hopkins, a public health lecturer from the University of Swansea, gave a figure for the number of patients currently hospitalised with Covid-19 in Wales.

She said: “I’ve just looked at the figures. There are 10,000—roughly 10,000—patients, inpatients, in hospitals with Covid in Wales, of which there are about 200 that are in critical care.”

This isn’t correct. Data published by the Welsh government on 13 December shows that the average total number of general and acute beds occupied in hospitals for Covid-19 related reasons in the week up to 9 December was 526. This includes patients with a suspected or confirmed case of Covid-19 and those recovering from the disease. Over the same period there were an average of 39 invasively ventilated beds occupied by people with Covid-19.

We’re grateful to Dr. Hopkins for correcting the error and to Sky News for subsequently making an on-air correction.

What the latest data says ([link removed])
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FACT CHECK
No evidence asylum seekers have used pets to argue against deportation ([link removed])

While discussing the Nationality and Borders Bill, which was voted through the House of Commons by MPs last week, Conservative MP Scott Benton made the argument that for the new legislation, in his view, to be successful, the Human Rights Act should be reformed.

Citing former Prime Minister Theresa May, Mr Benton claimed that Article Eight of the Human Rights Act, which protects the right to a private and family life, had been used to argue that an asylum seeker should remain in the UK because they had a pet.

There is no evidence for this claim. As was reported widely at the time (including by us) Mrs May was incorrect when she made this claim during her time as Home Secretary.

In 2011 there had been no reported cases of an asylum seeker being able to remain in the country due to owning a cat, and Full Fact could find no evidence of this having been applied in the decade since.

The evidence is paw ([link removed])
MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
* What booster target has the government announced to tackle the Omicron variant? ([link removed])
* Laws can be made without a parliamentary vote, contrary to the health secretary’s claim ([link removed])
* Video of Michael Gove dancing is from Conservative conference not Christmas party ([link removed])
* And Downing Street quiz picture doesn’t show bin bag over CCTV–it’s actually a fancy curtain ([link removed])

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