What fact-checking organizations have evaluated the £350 million NHS claim and what did they find?
Executive summary
Multiple reputable fact‑checking organisations — including Full Fact, the BBC/major news fact‑checkers, Channel 4 News’ FactCheck and international outlets such as Reuters and AP acting in a fact‑checking capacity — examined the Vote Leave/“£350 million a week for the NHS” claim and concluded it was misleading or false because it used a gross contribution figure and ignored rebates, EU spending in the UK and other deductions [1] [2] [3] [4]. Some commentators and outlets later contested that judgement or reinterpreted post‑Brexit spending patterns, but the contemporaneous fact‑checks consistently found the bus slogan overstated the net sums that would be available to the UK exchequer [5] [6] [7] [8].
1. Who checked it and how — Full Fact’s detailed rebuttal
Full Fact, the UK’s independent fact‑checking charity, explicitly evaluated iterations of the £350m claim (including comments by Boris Johnson) and concluded the assertion that “we will take back control of roughly £350 million per week” available to spend on the NHS was wrong, noting a range of inaccuracies and context missing from the slogan [1]. Full Fact traced the origins of the figure to gross UK contributions and explained why rebate arrangements, EU spending in the UK and existing commitments mean the gross number cannot simply be reallocated to domestic budgets [1] [9].
2. Broad UK newsrooms and public broadcasters — BBC, Channel 4 and contemporaneous reporting
BBC reporting and other mainstream outlets submitted repeated fact checks during the referendum and after, disputing the bus figure and highlighting that the gross contribution figure had been debunked and was presented without crucial context about rebates and EU spending in the UK [2]. Channel 4 News’ FactCheck similarly examined the post‑referendum “NHS funding boost” claims and found the money touted as a Brexit dividend had already been earmarked for divorce payments and replacement of EU funding, meaning the £350m framing as an NHS windfall was misleading [3].
3. International and analytical fact‑checks — Reuters, AP and the Irish Times
International fact‑check reporting from Reuters noted critics’ view that Vote Leave and pro‑Leave politicians had deliberately misled the public with the £350m claim, while also recording Leave supporters’ responses and later reinterpretations [7]. The Associated Press’ fact checks and the Irish Times’ analysis placed the gross figure in the context of the UK’s rebate and net payments, with the Irish Times noting that after rebate the net bill was substantially lower — producing weekly figures well under £350m [4] [5].
4. Health and policy analysts — Nuffield Trust and academic commentary
Health policy analysts at the Nuffield Trust judged the claim “indisputably wrong” when judged against public finances, noting no net saving for the NHS has appeared in the years following Brexit and illustrating the mismatch between campaign rhetoric and fiscal reality [6]. Academic analyses and ethical commentaries also flagged that even a hypothetical net saving would not automatically be spent on the NHS and that the Leave slogan omitted key budgetary and legal complexities [10].
5. Dissenting voices and retrospective reinterpretations
A minority of commentators and some tabloid pieces later argued the original claim has been vindicated or under‑estimated the eventual extra funding the NHS received, framing later spending decisions as confirmation of the bus slogan [8]. Pro‑Leave figures such as Boris Johnson publicly defended or rephrased the claim after the vote — assertions which fact‑checkers again examined and found to repeat earlier errors about net versus gross contributions [7] [1]. The contemporaneous mainstream fact‑checking consensus, however, remained that the bus slogan was misleading because it ignored rebates, EU spending in the UK and the political reality of how public funds are allocated [2] [5] [3].
Conclusion — what the fact‑check community found in common
Across Full Fact, major broadcasters and independent media fact‑checks, the common findings were consistent: the £350m figure represented a gross UK contribution, not the net cost after rebates and EU spending in the UK; the claim omitted that some EU payments return to the UK or fund projects the UK might otherwise finance; and there was no straightforward path by which the gross sum could be waved through to the NHS as a guaranteed weekly payment [1] [2] [5] [3]. Where sources diverge is primarily political interpretation and retrospective framing of subsequent government budgets, not on the technical accounting critiques documented by the fact‑checking organisations [8] [6].