On 1 February, the Prime Minister told the House of Commons that the Labour Party and Sir Keir Starmer are “bankrolled” by the protest group Just Stop Oil. We fact checked this and found no evidence that it was true. 

On 8 February, we wrote to the Prime Minister and asked him to back up his claim with evidence or correct the record. He has not responded.

Last week we tried something new. We emailed everyone who signed up to our Honesty in Politics campaign to ask for their help. So far, more than 3,700 people have written to the Prime Minister to ask him to correct the record.

Over 40,000 people have signed our petition to improve the corrections system in Parliament. Under current rules, the Prime Minister is one of the few MPs who can officially correct the record. But he has not yet chosen to do so. 

When Rishi Sunak entered Downing Street he committed to ‘restore trust into politics’ and put ‘integrity and honesty’ at the heart of his Government. You can add your voice to help hold him to his word. 

Last year, 50 MPs failed to issue corrections when challenged by Full Fact. But together we can speak louder.

With your support, we can make 2023 a better year for honest politics, and make sure more MPs from all parties correct their mistakes.

Do Rishi Sunak's claims about hospital discharge funding stack up?

During Prime Minister’s Questions on 8 February, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a series of claims about hospital discharge funding. He said part of £14 billion in new health and social care funding will go to a new discharge fund aimed at speeding up hospital discharges in England.

He added that this money was “already making a difference” and that “we can see the numbers of people unnecessarily in hospitals are already reducing, easing the burdens in our accident and emergency departments”.

Over the past two weeks we’ve tried to fact check these claims, but this has been difficult because Number 10 has declined to explain what specific information Mr Sunak was referring to or provide any evidence to back up what he said. The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has given us details of funding set aside to speed up discharge, but has not clarified what Mr Sunak’s claims were based on.

This is disappointing. Politicians making serious claims in public debate should be prepared to explain their claims and support them with evidence. Number 10 has also failed to back up two other claims from Mr Sunak in recent weeks, on A&E patient flow and Labour party funding. 

We're recruiting for a new Senior Political Journalist.

Help us tackle misleading claims from politicians at a crucial time, as we prepare for the next general election.

The role is remote-first, with an office available in central London, and offers a salary of £36,700-£41,700 depending on experience.

Applications close on 13 March.

Viral 'average energy cost' Europe price list is not what it seems

We’ve seen a number of tweets and Facebook posts giving figures for the “average energy costs” in different countries across Europe, which suggest the UK’s energy costs are the highest by far at £2,585 (around €2,960). This claim was also retweeted by Labour MP Karl Turner. 

But these prices aren’t “average energy costs” for consumers in those countries. They are wholesale electricity costs for suppliers which were correct for a specific hour on one day back in December.

A map of Europe with the same figures was tweeted on 15 December 2022, with the caption “Comparative energy prices. What's going on?”

The map pictured was clearly taken from the day-ahead market data published on the website of Epox Spot (also known as the European Power Exchange), which is used by around 300 companies across Europe to buy and sell electricity at short notice to meet demand.

A spokesperson for Epox Spot told us that the data corresponded to day-ahead prices per megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity, for delivery on 12 December 2022, specifically for hour 19 (between 6pm and 7pm), and gave us the data that appears to back this up. 

These prices are not what consumers pay for energy, or any type of average. They are how much electricity cost companies in those countries for delivery in the 19th hour on 12 December. These hourly prices vary throughout the day, and the £2,585 used for Great Britain was the peak. On average, electricity on that day cost £675 per MWh. 

The Household Energy Price Index, which measures consumer energy prices in the capital cities of 33 European countries showed that in January 2023, out of the countries in the post, electricity cost the most in Germany at 54c per kilowatt hour, followed by Denmark, where it was 53c. In the UK it was 47c (42p) while the European average was 29c.

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