The UK government is not building a multimillion pound railway line in Turkey

Earlier this week Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham tweeted a screenshot of a UK government press release with the headline “UK announces £680m for new high-speed electric railway in Turkey”.

Alongside the screenshot, Mr Burnham tweeted “So we can’t afford to keep our own ticket offices open – but we can afford to build a new line in Turkey?”

A number of similar posts have also been shared on Facebook.

Mr Burnham’s suggestion that the UK is financing a new railway line in Turkey is misleading—the £680 million figure used in the government press release refers to a loan provided by three banks (J.P. Morgan, ING Bank and BNP Paribas) which has been underwritten by the UK government’s export credit agency. The Italian and Austrian export credit…