Another minister makes a claim without providing evidence

25 Nov 2022 | Full Fact's weekly news
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FACT CHECK
Immigration claims repeatedly being made based on unpublished data

“At times, up to 20% of the adult males who arrive at Western Jet Foil [asylum processing centre] claim to be under 18, when clearly the number is substantially less than that.” - Robert Jenrick MP

There’s no published data available to support the immigration minister’s claim.

In what is becoming a familiar pattern, the Home Office told us Mr Jenrick’s claim was based on unpublished operational data. They told us something similar when we couldn’t find any data to support a claim from Priti Patel about the number of Albanians coming over in small boats.

After we contacted them, the Office for Statistics Regulation urged the Home Office to review its practices on immigration data and ensure the transparent release of Home Office statistics.

We welcome this intervention. Government ministers should be ready to share the evidence behind claims when they’re made, not months afterwards.

We expect better ([link removed])
FACT CHECK


** BBC article twisted to support vaccine misinformation ([link removed])
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Since the start of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out, a common feature of vaccine misinformation has been the idea that the spike proteins generated by vaccines may be damaging people’s health.

Vaccines instruct the body to build proteins similar to the ones found on the surface of the Covid-19 virus, to trigger an immune response.

A post we’ve seen circulating on social media this week claims that, now, even the BBC has now reported that spike proteins have been found in the bodies of babies which have died as newborns.

But the BBC has done no such thing. An article published in September reported on an official investigation into “spikes” in the number of neonatal deaths in Scotland. This seems to have been misinterpreted as claiming that “spike proteins” have been found in babies and so suggesting a link between vaccines and these deaths.

No evidence vaccines behind child deaths ([link removed])
REPORT


** Ipsos’ latest survey into trust makes for grim reading ([link removed])
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When barely 1 in 10 of us trusts politicians to tell the truth, it's obvious that something has to change.

If we can't trust those in power, we disengage. If we lose faith in our politics, democracy is at risk. It doesn't have to be like this.

One simple step - fix Parliament's broken corrections system. It's nonsensical that most MPs are currently unable to do what we expect of 6 year olds, and correct mistakes when they make them.

Sign the petition ([link removed])
FACT CHECK


** MP wrongly claims £37bn spent on Test and Trace app ([link removed])
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“Anybody else remember the £37 Billion @MattHancock and @BorisJohnson et al blew on the Covid track and trace app that had to be binned? Never forget, never forgive” - Karl Turner MP

As we have written a number of times before, this is not true.

This figure was the budget for the entire NHS Test and Trace scheme in its first two years—not just the app—and it is estimated the eventual total spend will be around £29 billion. The app itself cost £35 million, meaning Mr Turner was out by a factor of a thousand.

After being contacted by Full Fact, Mr Turner tweeted a correction clarifying that £37 billion was the total budget for Test and Trace, not just what was spent on the app.

The correction said: “To clarify, £37bn was the total test and trace budget, not what was spent on the app alone (aprox. £35m).

“These comments, which were not a deliberate attempt to mislead and which I am glad to correct, were on the Government's overall poor response to Covid-19.”

While the original tweet has not been deleted and has now been shared around 4,000 times, the correction has just a few dozen shares at the time of writing.

How much it all cost ([link removed])
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