Politics Live

In a speech during a Reform UK general election event on 28 May, Nigel Farage appeared to claim that people arriving in the UK on small boats get new iPhones within 24 hours of arrival.

Mr Farage was the party’s honorary president, but has today announced he will stand for election and become leader of Reform UK.

He said: “I’ve filmed […] people throwing their iPhones into the sea, throwing their passports into the sea, doing everything they can so we can’t track and identify them. Although it’s okay, because they get an iPhone, a new one, within 24 hours of arrival.”

It’s unclear what this claim about people getting a new iPhone is based on. 

Full Fact investigated a similar claim back in February and we found that the Home Office does not generally provide asylum seekers with phones, though there have been some exceptions.

Around 14,000 mobile phones were reportedly given to asylum seekers during the pandemic as immigration staff were unable to interview individuals face to face because of Covid-19 restrictions. However, this was a temporary measure.

Asylum seekers do not receive phones as part of their standard support package from the Home Office, though a number of charities do provide donated phones to new arrivals to make it easier for them to contact solicitors and monitor the progress of their claims. 

This means it’s possible some asylum seekers could end up with iPhones, though we’ve not seen any specific reports of this. If so, the phones are unlikely to be new as phones donated by charities appear to be typically second-hand, and donated phones are not available to everyone. 

We asked Reform UK for a source or evidence to support the claim, and we will update this blog if we get a response.

Image courtesy of Tron Le

The Labour candidate for High Peak in Derbyshire, Jon Pearce, has said there are “nearly 8 million people on NHS waiting lists”, in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that has also been shared by the shadow ministers Wes Streeting and Jonathan Reynolds.

As we’ve said many times before, including when Mr Streeting made a similar claim last week, this is not what NHS data shows. There are actually about 6.3 million people in the most recently published referral to treatment (RTT) data for NHS England, which is what claims about ”NHS waiting lists” or “the waiting list” usually refer to.

There are about 7.5 million cases on the RTT list, which may well be what Mr Pearce was talking about.

There are always more cases than people in the NHS data, because some people are awaiting treatment for more than one thing—although the estimated number of people wasn’t published until November 2023. Now that it is, we think politicians and the media should use the correct figure.

An important caveat here is that there are several different kinds of waiting list, so the RTT data doesn’t include everyone waiting for anything.

In April, the Office of National Statistics published the results of a survey, which suggested that almost 10 million adults in England were waiting for something on the NHS. 

We’ve approached Mr Pearce, Mr Streeting and Mr Reynolds for comment. 

Another claim that the health secretary Victoria Atkins made on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme this morning, when asked  why waiting lists have risen since 2010, was that “we’re living longer”.

While over the long term, life expectancy has increased, the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures don’t show it’s risen since 2010. (This was pointed out on the programme in a ‘Fact check’ section at the end.)

Between 2010 and 2012, life expectancy at birth for females was 82.57 years. This peaked at 83.01 years between 2017 and 2019, but fell back to 82.57 years in the most recent data.

For men, it’s actually fallen slightly, from 78.70 years in 2010 to 2012, to 78.57 in the most recent data (for 2020 to 2022). 

We’ve asked the Conservatives about Ms Atkins’s claim and what she was referring to and will update our liveblog if we hear back.

We’ve been asked about tweets from Conservative candidate Robert Largan, which say ‘Labour for Largan’ and ‘Reform for Largan’, and have the potential to seriously mislead voters in the marginal constituency of High Peak, Derbyshire. 

So many local Labour voters have told me they’re going to vote for me, because they want to keep me as their local MP.

There have been so many that I’m launching a new Labour for Largan club. You can join other traditional Labour voters backing me at: https://t.co/7zZ7RO53b7 pic.twitter.com/duoiq0QKr9

— Robert Largan (@robertlargan) June 1, 2024

These give the false impression that Mr Largan is backed by other political parties. 

Full Fact’s chief executive Chris Morris has strongly criticised this, saying: “These tactics are blatantly deceptive and play to some of the most cynical instincts in politics. 

“If politicians want to be part of the solution to catastrophically low public trust, they need to commit to honest, transparent campaigns of persuasion and advocacy—not more dirty tricks.” 

While the graphics do carry an imprint of High Peak Conservatives, it is not immediately clear and uses a tiny font that many observers could fail to spot entirely. 

Chris has written to the leaders of UK political parties to call for them to publicly pledge to run their general election campaigns honestly and transparently to enable everyone to make an informed decision at the ballot box. 

Several major parties have signed up to Full Fact’s pledge, but none of the Labour party, Conservatives or Reform UK have made the same commitment which would have rendered deceptive advertising of this nature an unacceptable and flagrant breach. 

Derbyshire Police have said they are reviewing "concerns around marketing material" which have been raised, though haven't confirmed what advertisements this relates to. Full Fact fully supports any police review of complaints, as well as the statement from the Electoral Commission which calls on candidates to consider how voters will understand their campaign materials. 

In an interview on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, health secretary Victoria Atkins claimed that the number of doctors working in general practice has increased since before the pandemic.

She said: “If I may on the GP point, we in fact have 2,711 more GPs working in the NHS than even in 2019.”

As we’ve written before, there are different ways to count the number of GPs. Ms Atkins’ figures are correct if you look at the total number of full-time-equivalent (FTE) GPs in England, which includes those in training. But the number of fully qualified FTE GPs has fallen over the same period. (Doctors are not officially GPs while they are training, but they do perform some of the work of GPs and so ‘GPs in Training Grade’ are included in NHS figures.) 

In March 2019 the total number of FTE GPs in England, including those in training, was 34,526. This increased to 37,237 in April 2024—a rise of 2,711, which matches the figure cited by Ms Atkins.

But during the same period the number of fully qualified FTE GPs in England—ie, not including those in training—fell by 880, from 28,486 in March 2019 to 27,606 in April this year.

Health is devolved, so the UK government is only responsible for health services in England.

Image courtesy of BBC

Update 2 June: We've updated the headline of this post, and the way we describe the total number of FTE GPs to be clearer about the metric.

On BBC Question Time last night, the host Fiona Bruce and Reform UK honorary president Nigel Farage provided conflicting percentages for the amount spent by the government on healthcare.

Mr Farage said: “We’re now spending over 10% of our national cake on the NHS every year… Even regardless of population, we’ve increased in percentage terms enormously under this government.”

But he was then challenged by Ms Bruce, who said “actually about 18% of total spending is on health”. Mr Farage responded that it was “between 10 and 11”. 

The figures seem contradictory, and we’ve since had viewers contact Full Fact asking us to clarify which speaker was correct.

But from our analysis, it appears that neither was wrong, and they were simply quoting different measures of healthcare spending. 

We’ve asked Reform UK what figures Mr Farage was referring to, and haven’t had a response. But according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), UK healthcare expenditure in 2022 (the most up to date annual data) was around £283 billion, of which £230 billion was government healthcare spending, and the rest made up of non-government spending, such as voluntary health insurance.

If all healthcare spending (which includes non-government healthcare expenditure) is viewed as a proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), then it was 11.3% of GDP in 2022, according to the ONS. 

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which also calculates healthcare spending as a share of GDP, provisionally says that in 2022 the UK spent 9.3% of GDP on government healthcare.

Mr Farage also compared how much the government is spending on health now with previous years. “Go back six, seven years, we were spending about 7% of our national cake on the NHS every year,” he said.

This would broadly align with the OECD statistics which record it as 7.9% in 2015 and 7.8% in 2016. (The term ‘national cake’ is sometimes used as slang for GDP.)

When Ms Bruce appeared to correct Mr Farage’s figure during the show, she said total “government spending” on health was actually “about 18%”. 

The BBC has told Full Fact Ms Bruce was referring to a different measure—healthcare spending as a proportion of total managed expenditure (TME), which is the total amount of money that the government spends each year.

In 2022/23, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, health spending equated to 18.3% of TME—which was the source Ms Bruce quoted from.

(It’s worth noting that when we wrote about current health spending earlier this year and calculated a 2023/24 figure, using Treasury estimates, it was a bit lower.) 

So, while potentially confusing for people watching the programme, it appears neither Mr Farage or Ms Bruce was necessarily wrong, if talking about 2022 spending—although they could have been more clear about which data they were referring to.

Image courtesy of BBC

A few people have asked us about an image circulating online of a billboard which shows the Labour logo and a photo of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, alongside the words: “‘Israel has the right’ to cut off food, water & electricity to 2 million people in Gaza - Keir Starmer.”

Although it’s been shared on X (formerly Twitter), and a similar image has been shared on Instagram, with the caption “Labour campaign posters going up for the General Election”, apparently jokingly, it is not a genuine Labour poster. And it’s not a recent image either, having been shared at least as far back as last December.

The Instagram account of the Tower Hamlets Palestine Solidarity Network posted a video on 23 December 2023 appearing to show the poster being put up, with a caption saying “Bethnal Green, London”. But it’s unclear who’s behind the poster and we’ve not been able to confirm the location of the billboard or if it is still there. We’ve asked the network about this but not had a response. 

The comment from Mr Starmer which appears in the image comes from an LBC interview on 11 October 2023, in the wake of the 7 October Hamas attacks against Israel.

When asked by presenter Nick Ferrari what a proportionate response was in his view, Mr Starmer said: “I think the first thing I have to say is responsibility lies with Hamas. This is cold-blooded murder of men, women, even children. It is terrorism and Israel has the right to defend herself. And there are ongoing situations with hostages and Israel has the right to do everything that it can to get those hostages back safe and sound, and therefore I’m very clear Israel must have that, does have that right, to defend herself, and Hamas bears responsibility.”

Mr Ferrari then said: “A siege is appropriate? Cutting off power, cutting off water?” 

Mr Starmer responded: “I think that Israel does have that right. It is an ongoing situation. Obviously everything should be done within international law, but I don’t want to step away from the core principles that Israel has a right to defend herself, and Hamas bears responsibility for these terrorist acts.”

Mr Starmer later sought to clarify his remarks, telling broadcasters on 20 October: “I was saying Israel had the right to self defence, and when I said that right, it was that right to self defence. I was not saying that Israel had the right to cut off water, food, fuel or medicines.”

In the run-up to the general election on 4 July, here at Full Fact we will be ‘live fact checking’ a number of events throughout the campaign, holding candidates to account in real time for the claims they make, and ensuring voters have access to information they can trust. That includes the first TV election debate between Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer next Tuesday.  

Tonight we’ll be tuning in to BBC One’s Question Time, which comes from Epsom, Surrey, and will feature Conservative schools minister Damian Hinds, Labour shadow health secretary Wes Streeting, Reform UK honorary president Nigel Farage, Bishop of Dover Rose Hudson-Wilkin and journalist and broadcaster Piers Morgan. 

We’ll be scrutinising claims by the panel, and calling out claims we think are wrong or which would benefit from additional explanation. During the programme, you can follow our updates on X (formerly Twitter) here (and tag the @FullFact account if there’s a claim you think we should be looking at).