#FactsMatter

In a world of fast-moving misinformation, independent fact checking is more important than ever. Follow Full Fact to stay informed, challenge falsehoods and stand up for accuracy.

Evidence you can rely on

Fact checking claims made by politicians, public figures and viral online content can give you the full picture backed by the evidence.

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Recent fact checks

Ahead of the local elections we wrote about several examples of misleading or unreliable bar charts circulated by the major parties.

Staff count ballots the morning after local elections at a vote-counting centre inside the count centre for Hackney, north London on 8 May.

We’ve taken another look at some of those examples to see how the bar charts compared with how things actually turned out.

Bar charts revisited

The Conservatives have claimed that “for the first time ever, the total welfare bill is now higher than total receipts from income tax.”

Official portrait of Kemi Badenoch

That’s incorrect. Welfare spending, which includes state pensions, has been higher than income tax in every year since at least 2013/14.

Tax and spending

Posts circulating on social media claim the World Health Organisation has said that hantavirus is spreading “very fast across the world”.

An illustrative image showing a rat and vials being tested for hantavirus.

This is false. The WHO has described the hantavirus outbreak as a ‘cluster’ and said there is no sign it is the start of a larger outbreak.

Hantavirus claims