What payouts do ministers receive when they leave office?
Government ministers under 65 are entitled to severance pay when they leave office, as long as they don’t return within three weeks. Read
Fact checks
Leo Benedictus
Journalist
Leo joined Full Fact in January 2020. For 15 years, he worked freelance as a feature writer for the Guardian, Prospect, the New Scientist and others, making maps of immigration, explaining citizens’ assemblies and debunking superfoods. He has a fondness for science and statistics. He also writes novels.
Conspiracy theory about Boris Johnson not having Covid-19 is back
A satirical article in 2020 claimed that St Thomas’ Hospital made staff sign the Official Secrets Act when Mr Johnson was admitted, and sent home those who refused—but none of this was true. Read
Fact checks
Health
Microwaves don’t make food ‘highly toxic’
A video on Instagram falsely claims that microwave ovens destroy all the nutritional value in food and turn it into a “toxin”. Read
Fact checks
Immigration
Iain Duncan Smith wrong to say successful asylum seekers would return from Rwanda
The terms of the government’s agreement with Rwanda mean that people whose claims for asylum are accepted will be allowed to settle there—not return to the UK. Read
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Health
RMT exaggerates money ‘wasted’ on PPE and NHS Test and Trace
Funding the NHS for years would cost far more than the total amount spent—let alone “wasted”—on PPE and Test and Trace during the pandemic. Read
Fact checks
Economy, Business & Finance
Child self-harm numbers in the Guardian, Mirror and Independent don’t reflect survey’s actual findings
About 3% of parents taking part in a survey said their children had begun to self-harm in response to the cost of living crisis. Read
Fact checks
Health
Article vastly exaggerates number of Covid-19 vaccine deaths
Reports of death following vaccination do not mean that the vaccine caused the death. Read
Fact checks
Health
A US federal agency did not say that Covid-19 was a planned ‘scamdemic’
A retired neurosurgeon expressed this opinion in a journal article, which can be found by searching PubMed on the agency’s site. Read
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Economy, Business & Finance
The Coalition did not build more affordable homes in a year than Labour did in 13 years of government
Boris Johnson was wrong to make this claim, according to the government’s own definition of affordable housing. Read
Fact checks
Economy, Business & Finance
Ofgem said that 12 million households—not people—might end up in fuel poverty
These estimates are uncertain for several reasons, but 12 million households would amount to many more than 12 million people. Read
Fact checks
