Tag Archives: FACT

The British Medical Association (BMA) is incorrect to suggest there are 6.4 million more GP patients registered in England than there were in 2019.

In a letter to the new health secretary Wes Streeting, shared on X (formerly Twitter) and viewed over 28,000 times, the chair of the BMA’s GP committee Dr Katie Bramall-Stainer said that patient numbers had “increased by 6.4 million in the past 5 years alone”.

But this isn’t right, and the patient register has only grown by about half that.

Professional bodies should take care to avoid errors in statistics they use, and quickly rectify any mistakes when they occur.

As of June 2024 (when the letter from the BMA was written), there were 63,375,801 registered patients at GP practices in England, up by 3.5 million on…

Posts being shared on social media have misidentified an Italian sports journalist as the shooter responsible for the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

Former US President and presidential candidate Mr Trump survived the assassination attempt with a bullet wound to his ear, but one spectator, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two other people were seriously injured at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania on 13 July.

Some users online have wrongly named the attacker as ‘Mark Violets’. Posts featuring an image of a man in sunglasses on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, say: “BREAKING: Butler Police Department confirms the arrest of the #Trump shooter identified as Mark Violets, a known antifa extremist. He uploaded a video on YouTube before the attack,…

Photos circulating on social media appear to show Donald Trump and security agents smiling just after he was shot at during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening (13 July). But these have been altered and the real photos do not show this. 

Former US President and presidential candidate Mr Trump survived the assassination attempt with a bullet wound to his ear, but one spectator, Corey Comperatore, was killed and two other people were seriously injured. The gunman, who was killed by a secret service sniper at the scene, has been named as Thomas Matthew Crooks. 

One image being shared online shows three security agents smiling as they surround Mr Trump, who has blood on his face. It has been shared more than 6,600 times on X (formerly Twitter) and also

A Facebook post claims “The typical household is now £5,883 worse off since 2019”, but there are a number of problems with this figure. 

The post, first shared in May, says: “The conservatives are making Britain poorer while they all get richer, they are all on the gravy train! 

“The typical household is now £5,883 worse off since 2019 due to energy prices, mortgages, groceries, motoring, personal tax and council, tax. [sic]” 

The £5,883 figure was first shared by the Labour party in May and circulated widely during the 2024 general election campaign. But as we’ve previously explained, the figure only includes six specific household costs, and doesn’t account for changes to wages or benefits since 2019. 

Real household disposable income per…

An image has been shared on social media with the caption: “Muslims pay tribute to Keir Starmer outside Number 10,” but this is not a genuine photo. 

The image supposedly shows rows of people on prayer mats outside Number 10 Downing Street with the suggestion this is related to Sir Keir Starmer being elected as the UK Prime Minister following the election on 4 July. 

The image was shared both before and after the general election took place.

However, there are multiple visual clues that suggest the image is inauthentic, and most likely created using artificial intelligence (AI). 

To start, two figures in the front row are warped so that feet appear instead of heads, while the hands of other figures—although they’re in the right place—are misshapen and…