Dear Friend,

During his Labour party conference speech yesterday Sir Keir Starmer made two claims that we have looked into, both about the record of Labour’s previous period in government. The first is about a fall in crime and the second related to the National Minimum Wage. 
 
Read more
The first claim was that crime fell by one third under the Labour government. We don’t have comparable data covering all previous administrations, but the central crime survey data shows that crime peaked prior to the last Labour government taking office, and has been declining since. 

The second claim was that the Conservatives have not had an achievement like the introduction of the National Minimum Wage. However, the Conservatives did introduce a higher minimum wage, the National Living Wage, in 2016.
FACT CHECKS

Misleading videos about ongoing attacks on Israel circulating on social media


There have been a number of misleading videos circulating on social media about the ongoing Hamas attacks on Israel. One claimed a new air assault was underway, showing rockets in the sky near tall buildings. The video is however from 2021 and does not depict the current conflict. 

Another video purported to show a rocket attack on Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion International Airport. This clip has been online since February 2020, when a Turkish news outlet reported that it showed Turkish forces launching a rocket attack in Syria.
 

Labour house building claims don't stack up


In an interview with the Sunday Times ahead of the Labour party conference the shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves was reported to have said: “Fewer homes are being built than at any time since the Second World War”.

This claim doesn’t quite stack up, as current house building figures show more houses are being built than a decade ago, though one industry projection earlier this year suggested house building could hit a post-war low in the next few years if certain potential policy changes occur.
 

Labour’s claim about 2019 MP gender parity requires context


In a speech at Labour’s National Annual Women’s Conference, shadow women and equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds claimed that the Labour party “is the first political party to reach parity in terms of men and women MPs.”

This claim requires context, as both Labour and the Liberal Democrats returned more than 50% women MPs at the 2019 general election. In Labour’s case, women comprised 51% of elected MPs, and the for Liberal Democrats women comprised 64%.
 
MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
 
Read our latest fact checks
Stop the spread of bad information

Find these updates useful? We'd be incredibly grateful if you could share our fact checks and help more people access good information.

Share Share
Tweet Tweet
Forward Forward
Share Share
All the best,
Team Full Fact

 
Follow us
Donate
Like us
Follow us
Have any questions or feedback? Please get in touch via our contact form. We do not respond to direct replies to this email address.

Find out how Full Fact is funded.

Copyright © Full Fact 2023 - All rights reserved

A registered charity (no. 1158683) and a non-profit company (no. 6975984) limited by guarantee and registered in England and Wales.

Our mailing address is:
17 Oval Way, London, SE11 5RR

We use Mailchimp to send you our emails and to see which articles are most popular. Read our privacy policy or Mailchimp's privacy policy

unsubscribe from this list    update subscription preferences