Hannah Smith

Senior Political Journalist

Hannah joined Full Fact as a fact checker in May 2022. Before that she wrote news and features for UNILAD. She is a qualified journalist, and also has a degree in history.

17 April 2025

Post falsely claims police asked ‘British Jews’ to stay at home due to ‘pro-Palestine marches’

Both the Metropolitan Police and the Community Security Trust have said this is completely untrue.

2048px-metropolitan_police_at_trafalgar_square_london_1.jpg

15 April 2025

Sign telling people not to walk their dogs in an ‘Islamic area’ is not recent

A sign shared on Facebook appeared in Tower Hamlets in 2014—we’ve seen no recent reports of the same or similar signs appearing in London or elsewhere in the UK.

8 April 2025

How many people has Labour ‘deported’?

Some politicians and media have referred to the total number of immigration returns as the number of people being “deported”, but most returns aren’t officially counted as “deportations”.

31 March 2025

BBC podcast corrects claim that tax fraud is ‘30 times larger’ than benefit fraud

The BBC has removed an inaccurate claim made on its Strong Message Here podcast after Full Fact got in touch.

27 March 2025

Did Labour promise to freeze council tax?

We’ve taken a look at what Labour said it would do, after Conservative claims that council tax rises this year amount to a “betrayal”.

18 March 2025

How much is the ‘welfare bill’ set to increase by?

The Prime Minister and others have claimed “welfare” or “social security” spending is set to increase to £70 billion by the end of the decade—but this figure refers to one part of overall spending.

17 March 2025

Viral post comparing benefit fraud with tax avoidance and evasion is inaccurate

The post makes incorrect claims, including that tax avoidance and evasion cost the UK 100 times more than benefit fraud.

28 February 2025

‘Net Zero’ policy costs do not account for 25% of an electricity bill

A post shared on Facebook wrongly claims that 25% of an electricity bill is due to costs associated with Net Zero, and that these costs account for 40% of the recently announced energy price cap.

27 February 2025

Trump and Starmer's White House talks: fact checked

On Thursday the Prime Minister and the US President held their first face-to-face meeting since the latter’s return to office, discussing Ukraine, trade and a second state visit.

25 February 2025

Reform MP did not call for sign language teaching ban

A post supposedly shared by Rupert Lowe MP calling on the deputy Prime Minister to ‘remove teaching any sign language in the UK’ was created by a satirical account.

Fact checks

Analysis

Policy & Impact

About

Hannah Smith

Senior Political Journalist

Post falsely claims police asked ‘British Jews’ to stay at home due to ‘pro-Palestine marches’

Sign telling people not to walk their dogs in an ‘Islamic area’ is not recent

How many people has Labour ‘deported’?

BBC podcast corrects claim that tax fraud is ‘30 times larger’ than benefit fraud

Did Labour promise to freeze council tax?

How much is the ‘welfare bill’ set to increase by?

Viral post comparing benefit fraud with tax avoidance and evasion is inaccurate

‘Net Zero’ policy costs do not account for 25% of an electricity bill

Trump and Starmer's White House talks: fact checked

Reform MP did not call for sign language teaching ban

Full Fact fights bad information