Stephen Fry shares fact-checking election video about Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn
Stephen Fry urged his followers to watch the fact-checking video before voting in the general election (Anthony Harvey/Getty)
As the world of politics becomes increasingly tangled in the build up to the election, Stephen Fry has entered the fray to help separate fact from fiction.
The actor, comedian and writer isn’t one to keep his views to himself, and has become known for his fact-check videos which challenge common misconceptions with factual evidence.
His blisteringly honest YouTube videos are created by online platform Pindex, “a Pinterest for education” which Fry himself co-funded as a start-up in 2016.
Fry offers creative direction and narrates several ‘explainer’ videos for the channel, including one about Boris and Trump’s “economic lies”.
The latest, Boris & Corbyn Fact-check Themselves on Brexit, Election, was voiced by Boris and Corbyn impersonators and shared by Fry with his 12.7 million Twitter followers.
Absolutely not for me to tell anyone how to vote, but this video allows us to see Johnson and Corbyn fact-checking themselves. Deadline for registering to vote is 11.59 pm tonight https://t.co/PKe0yN4EGj. (We must admit, voice actors may have been used) https://t.co/XgX6AO8INn
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) November 26, 2019
Prime minister Boris Johnson emerges as the biggest liar of the video, with several of his claims on the NHS, immigration and public spending swiftly debunked.
For example, his claim that the Conservative Party has made the biggest investments in the NHS for a generation was proved to be untrue. It’s actually significantly less than the average increase.
He blames record numbers on hospital waiting lists on immigration, but European immigrants actually pay for more hospital places than they use. They pay £78,000 more into the NHS than they take out. They have a net positive contribution of £26 billion.
(YouTube/Pindex)
And the 50,000 police officers Johnson has optimistically promised he’ll provide won’t even reverse the cuts that the Conservatives have already made to the police force in recent years.
But Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t escape unscathed. The video debunks his claim that the UK is experiencing “the greatest slump in wages since the steam train was built”.
The TUC report Corbyn is referring to actually states that “by the time [wages] are forecast to return to their pre-crash level in 2025, real wages will have been in decline for 17 years.” Still not great news, though.
You can watch the full video here.
