Steve Nowottny

Revealed: How the No 10 grid strangles effective communication A government ‘playlist’ of campaigns could cut through more powerfully than an old-style grid of worthy policy nuggets

How exactly did the Downing Street 'grid' work in New Labour's heyday - and why might a communications 'playlist' be a more effective approach in 2025?

A compelling read here for anyone interested in political comms...

peterhyman21.substack.com/p/revealed-h...

Kemi Badenoch’s claims about Labour’s unemployment record aren’t quite right—here’s why – Full Fact The Conservative leader has repeated two claims about Labour’s record on unemployment, neither of which is quite right.

In the last few days we've heard a couple of familiar claims from Kemi Badenoch about Labour's unemployment record.

Neither is correct - though neither's that far off either.

fullfact.org/economy/bade...

Daily Mail corrects article about Covid vaccines and cancer – Full Fact The article wrongly said a study claimed to have found proof the vaccines raised the risk of getting several types of cancer.

Good to see the Mail correct this article.

The Korean researchers behind the study concerned said they found an association between the vaccines and cancer, but specifically said they didn’t know the vaccines were the cause.

fullfact.org/health/mail-...

Has Euan Blair’s company Multiverse been chosen to run the government’s new digital ID scheme? – Full Fact Multiverse is an “upskilling company”, not a software developer, and both it and the government say there’s no truth to viral claims linking it to the scheme.

Here’s our original fact check of the claims, which had gone *very* viral across social media

fullfact.org/technology/d...

Have I Got News For You episode removed from iPlayer after 'jaw-dropping error' 'An incredibly basic failure of fact-checking.'

Lots of coverage today about the most recent Have I Got News For You episode being pulled from iPlayer because it repeated a false claim about digital ID - a claim @fullfact.org fact checked last week.

metro.co.uk/2025/10/04/g...

Fact check: Are migrants catching and eating swans and carp? Full Fact looks at what evidence there is to support a claim last week from Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

So... is there any evidence for Nigel Farage's claim last week about migrants eating swans and carp?

That's the subject of @fullfact.org's latest PA Media column, which appears this week in 150+ publications.

Here it is via the York Press 👇

www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/nationa...

Loads of social media chatter about this - some posts with more than a million views.

Both Multiverse and DSIT have said it's not true - and in any event Multiverse is an "upskilling" company, not a software developer.

Broken promises? What Full Fact’s Government Tracker does (and doesn’t) tell us about Labour’s first year – Full Fact Labour’s lagging in the polls and many claim it’s failed to deliver what it promised. Our analysis of manifesto pledges paints a less clear-cut picture, but the government needs to do more to give us ...

Since November Full Fact has been running a major project monitoring Labour’s delivery of its pledges - we’re now following 80.

As Labour opens its conference, here’s what our Government Tracker does (and doesn’t) tell us about its performance so far

fullfact.org/politics/tra...

Not to give away what fact check we're working on at the moment, but just received a Slack message from a colleague which said "That's technically a goose"

Interesting argument here on the impact of expected goals/xG, and whether as a stat it's led top-flight football players to take fewer shots from outside the box...

Great investigation here from @sleighbayley.bsky.social looking at a new trend in online misinformation - we've seen dozens of these videos across social media in recent weeks

Fact check: ‘Unite the Kingdom’ protest and Labour’s ‘Hillsborough Law’ pledge Round-up of fact checks from the last week compiled by Full Fact.

Our PA Media round-up of fact checks this week looks at claims about the size of the ’Unite the Kingdom’ protest, and Labour’s pledge on the new ‘Hillsborough Law’.

It’s carried by local news outlets across the country - here it is via the Ham & High 👇
www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/nationa...

From London to Java: how AI helped us locate a viral video’s true origin – Full Fact Footage of veiled women was being shared with claims it was filmed in London. We delve into how we tracked down the real location in Indonesia.

How was @fullfact.org able to geolocate a viral video to a boarding school in Indonesia... with a little help from ChatGPT?

One of the fact checkers from our News and Online team, which does this kind of work every day, explains 👇

fullfact.org/world/how-ai...

Supermarkets won’t require people to show ID to enter – Full Fact A video shared widely online falsely claims that a new policy of ‘no ID no food’ will be coming to UK supermarkets this month.

17,000 shares on TikTok alone for this video 👇

So. just for the avoidance of doubt... no, supermarkets aren't going to have staff on the doors operating "airport-style security" and inspecting your photo ID as of *checks notes* tomorrow morning

fullfact.org/shopping/sup...

Fact check: Has unemployment risen ‘every single month’ under Labour? Full Fact looks at the numbers after a claim from several Conservative MPs, including the party’s leader Kemi Badenoch.

170ish pick-ups of our latest fact check sent out via PA Media, on Conservative claims about unemployment under Labour.

Here it is from the Independent 👇

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home...

Entertaining long (really, really long) read here in the New Yorker about its “vaunted fact checking department”: newyorker.com/magazine/202...

And while it’s obviously a different type of fact checking to what @fullfact.org does, there’s a lot that sounds fairly familiar…

Media correct asylum hotel claims, but government minister doesn’t – Full Fact Sky News and the Guardian have both corrected claims about asylum hotels, after Full Fact got in touch. A Sky News post on X (formerly Twitter) claimed: “Shadow Home Secretary …

🚨 CORRECTIONS SECURED

The Guardian and Sky News have both kindly corrected claims about asylum hotels after @fullfact.org got in touch.

(We're still waiting for the Home Office to respond about a minister's claim, however...)

Full details here 👇

fullfact.org/live/2025/se...

Unemployment has risen under Labour - but it hasn’t gone up ‘every single month’ – Full Fact We’ve looked into the numbers after claims from a number of Conservative MPs, including the party’s leader Kemi Badenoch.

It's a line we've heard a lot from the Conservatives in recent days - that unemployment under Labour has gone up "every single month". But is it actually true?

Well actually...

fullfact.org/economy/kemi...

Loads of pick-up by national and local media of @fullfact.org’s PA Media column this week, looking at the number of small boat crossings in August.

Here it is via the Chard and Ilminster News 👇

www.chardandilminsternews.co.uk/news/nationa...

Reform UK claims about the number of people in the UK illegally – Full Fact With the Reform UK party conference underway in Birmingham today, we’ve heard a couple of senior figures from the party make claims about the number of people who are in …

Are there over a million people in the UK illegally, as claimed at Reform UK’s #RUK25 conference in Birmingham today?

Our politics blog looks at what we know 🔍
fullfact.org/live/2025/se...

Is the government on track with its review of Universal Credit? – Full Fact Full Fact takes a look at Labour’s manifesto pledge to review Universal Credit.

We're continuing to expand the range of Labour pledges we're monitoring on our Government Tracker. This, added today, is pledge #74, on the planned review of UC

fullfact.org/government-t...

For full info and sources for all of the above, see 👉 fullfact.org

And if you’ve seen something you’d like us to fact check - the Yvette Cooper claim above was kindly flagged to us by a reader - please do let us know here 👉 fullfact.org/about/contact/

Immigration returns aren’t at ‘record levels’ under Labour – Full Fact Health secretary Wes Streeting claimed Labour has carried out “record levels” of returns and deportations, but that’s not what government data shows.

And yesterday, Wes Streeting claimed “record levels” of immigration returns and deportations have been achieved under the current home secretary.

❌ Again, that doesn’t seem to be right based on the published returns figures. (4/5)

fullfact.org/immigration/...

How did small boat arrivals in August stack up against previous years? – Full Fact The home secretary claimed the number of crossings last month was lower than “any August previously”. But that’s not correct.

On Tuesday, the home secretary claimed small boat numbers last month were “lower than any August previously”.

❌ The number of people making crossings was the lowest Aug total since 2021 - the number of boats the lowest for that month since 2019. (3/5)

fullfact.org/immigration/...

Has Labour ‘deported’ 35,000 people? – Full Fact That’s what an education minister claimed—but the 35,000 figure refers to the total number of immigration returns, most of which were voluntary.

On Monday, education minister Stephen Morgan claimed: "35,000 people have been deported."

❌ There were c.35,000 immigration returns in total in Labour’s first year, but most were voluntary, and not officially classed as "deportations". (2/5)

fullfact.org/immigration/...

This week @fullfact.org has heard *three* claims from ministers about immigration which appear to be incorrect.

The stats in this area are complicated, and fiddly, and easy to confuse. But clearly it’s crucial they’re discussed accurately.

So what have ministers got wrong? A 🧵 (1/5)

Thousands sharing and commenting on an image doing the rounds on social media, supposedly of a Daily Mail article revealing that the government's considering banning public displays of the England flag.

It's entirely fake - the Mail's published no such article.

Private Eye’s piece last week on @fullfact.org’s investigation into Google Lens’ AI overviews…

Labour hasn’t ‘halved’ the number of asylum hotels – Full Fact In recent days we’ve seen a number of inaccurate and misleading claims about Labour’s record on closing asylum hotels.

Lots of inaccurate and misleading claims about asylum hotel numbers flying around this week.

A useful summary of the claims we've seen (one of which has been promptly corrected) and what the numbers really show here 👇

fullfact.org/immigration/...

Google Lens’s AI overviews shared misleading information about images – Full Fact The visual search tool failed to identify certain images as inauthentic and shared incorrect information about what some images show.

Google Lens is a useful tool - but worryingly, a new
@fullfact.org investigation has found its AI overviews have been giving users false and misleading information about certain images shared widely on social media.

Important story here 👇

fullfact.org/technology/t...