The election race is on – and that’s a fact. But with the campaign come claims and counter-claims. So Channel 4 News FactCheck with Cathy Newman is stepping up its efforts to separate political facts from fiction.
As the country heads for the polls, an expanded FactCheck team will keep an eye on every statement that moves – from politicians right across the spectrum.
We’ve already exposed a number of fishy facts and spurious statistics since our relaunch as a blog in February.
Last month FactCheck tripped up Gordon Brown over defence spending. We pointed out that, contrary to the PM’s claims to parliament and the Chilcot inquiry, the budget had not in fact risen every year in real terms.
We also exposed Brown’s misleading use of immigration figures – leading to a prime ministerial rebuke from the head of the statistics watchdog.
That’s not to say we’re only interested in claims from No. 10 – far from it. We also used new figures to unpick the uncertain maths behind the Conservatives’ proposed tax on non-doms – research which was cited in the House of Lords and a Labour party dossier.
We scrutinised the Ask the Chancellors TV debate on Channel 4 last week and of course the FactCheck team will be hard at work during the forthcoming televised leaders’ clashes.
No matter what the parties and politicians say, and where they say it – whether in front of the cameras, in print, online, on billboards, manifestos, blogs, adverts, local leaflets – you name it, we’ll be watching. Keep in touch by following @factcheck and @cathynewman on Twitter and signing up for our regular email updates.
And if you’ve seen a claim you think needs a FactCheck then get in touch at factcheck@channel4.com.