BBC Reality Check gets to the facts behind the claims in the EU referendum campaign and beyond
The referendum took place on 23 June 2016 - the UK voted to leave the EU
On this page you will find all the checks the team has done so far
Reality Check
Much will come down to what happens in the UK's negotiations to leave the EU, particularly whether freedom of movement continues. It will also be important whether the UK decides to remain part of the European Economic Area, although there are some customs checks even between Norway, which is an EEA member and Sweden, which is an EU member.
Reality Check
![Jeremy Corbyn saying: I did not mean [Article 50] should be invoked on Friday morning and we should rush over to Brussels and start negotiating.](https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standard/640/cpsprodpb/vivo/live/images/2016/7/22/30c751d6-bfc2-4cbb-b623-637cfa3e7a0c.gif.webp)
The claim: Jeremy Corbyn has performed a U-turn over when Article 50 should be triggered.
Reality Check verdict: Mr Corbyn's message has certainly changed, either because he has changed his mind or because he misspoke on 24 June and waited a month to correct himself.
Reality Check
The claim: Boris Johnson says his remarks have been taken out of context.
Reality Check verdict: The comment about President Obama looks slightly better with full context. The remarks about Hillary Clinton do not.
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The claim: The referendum lock introduced by the coalition government in 2011 means that there will have to be a second referendum before the UK leaves the EU.
Reality Check verdict: It's far from clear that there's any legal requirement for a second referendum and, even if there were, the referendum lock could be repealed.
Reality Check
The claim: The weak pound is good news for hotels in the UK.
Reality Check verdict: The weaker pound makes visiting the UK from overseas cheaper, but hotels will also find that the weak pound increases some of their other costs.
Reality Check
This week, a motion in the House of Commons calling on the government to guarantee the rights of EU nationals living in the UK was passed by 245 votes to two.
It is not binding on the government, which said it would be a mistake to give guarantees to EU nationals in the UK without similar concessions for UK nationals living elsewhere in the EU.
How do the numbers compare?
The UK has a population of 63.7 million, of which 5.3 million (8%) are non-British, and just over half of those - 2.9 million (5%) - are from Europe. Just under 1.2 million UK nationals live elsewhere in the EU.
Reality Check
The claim: Part of the reason the pound is weaker is that the markets thought that the UK would vote to stay in the EU.
Reality Check verdict: Currency market moves on the day of the referendum suggest that the markets did indeed predict the wrong result, but it is hard to argue that the pound would now be at a different level if they had predicted correctly.
Reality Check
The claim: The cost of borrowing for the UK government is at record low levels. The government should take advantage of this to improve the UK's economic performance.
Reality Check verdict: The yield on UK government bonds has been falling to record lows, making borrowing cheaper, despite the recent cut in the UK's credit ratings. Borrowing to invest has the potential to reduce the need for future borrowing, but that's not guaranteed and it could further damage the UK's credit.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Reality Check
The claim: Some candidates for the Conservative Party leadership have suggested that UK nationals living in the EU, and indeed EU nationals living in the UK, will automatically be able to carry on as they are after Britain leaves the EU.
Reality Check verdict: Although politicians have so far indicated that this is likely to be the case, this issue, together with many other issues, is likely to be discussed as part of the UK exit negotiations.
Reality Check
The claim: The next prime minister will not be allowed to invoke Article 50 - the mechanism for leaving the European Union - unless an act of Parliament authorises them to do so.
Reality Check verdict: It may turn out that an act of Parliament is needed before Article 50 may be triggered, but it is difficult to see how Parliament could in practice ignore the result of the referendum.
Reality Check
The claim: The UK has to officially leave the EU before it can make a new deal on trade.
Reality Check verdict: Under current EU rules, EU countries cannot make separate trade deals with individual member states or non-EU countries. However, there is no legal precedent for a country to leave the EU and renegotiate a trade agreement with the bloc. Legal experts say the UK could argue its official status has changed once it invokes Article 50, but this is largely hypothetical at the moment.
Reality Check
Chancellor George Osborne has spoken about the economy being in a good state to cope with the challenges ahead because the budget deficit has been falling. But the current account deficit has been growing.
We rely on foreign investment to balance out how much more we import than export and also how much more foreign countries earn in the UK than we earn overseas.
It means prolonged uncertainty about the UK's relationship with the EU could be a problem for the economy.
Reality Check
The question: Graham asks: The view of senior constitutional lawyers is that there has to be a bill passed by Parliament to repeal the 1972 European Communities Act, before Article 50 can be invoked. Won't MPs be duty-bound to vote in whichever way they consider to be the best interests of the country?
The answer: Some constitutional lawyers think that there will have to be a vote in Parliament before Article 50 is invoked.
But others say it's a prerogative power held by the Prime Minister so no vote is necessary.
Even if there is a vote, many MPs will think their primary duty is to uphold the will of the people as expressed in the referendum - even if they had personally supported Remain.
Reality Check
The question: Matt says: Much has been made of the two year exit period that invoking Article 50 will bring. Can anyone explain what might happen if that period expires without agreement on our exit terms? Would our membership simply cease? Or would we remain engaged to all of the terms and conditions that were in place prior at that time?
The answer: Once Article 50 has been triggered there is a two year time limit on negotiations for a new relationship between the UK and the EU.
If an agreement has not been approved by other member states and the European Parliament in two years, then the deadline may be extended if they all agree to it.
Otherwise, the UK simply stops being a member of the EU and its treaties will no longer apply.
But negotiations on a new relationship could continue after that point.
Reality Check
The question: John asks: How do you know how various ages voted?
The answer: We will never know the actual figures for how different age groups voted.
Like other elections, the referendum was a secret ballot.
However, there are post-referendum polls, external that give a pretty good indication.
They can't tell us the precise numbers but they're clear enough to confirm that young voters were more likely to vote Remain, and older voters more likely to vote Leave.
You can read more about what polls from before and after the referendum tell us here.
Reality Check
The question: Adam asks: If the UK invokes Article 50 by stating its intention to leave, can we later withdraw this intention if for example we don't like the deal that is negotiated or will we be compelled to leave?
The answer: There is nothing in Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty, or in any other EU legal document, that would tell us what would happen if an exiting country changed its mind, after the process of leaving had started.
A member state leaving the EU is unprecedented, so it's impossible to say what would happen if the UK decided it didn't like the deal and it wanted to stay.
However, the signals we have had so far from both EU and UK politicians, it is unlikely that EU members would allow the UK to change its mind and stay in the EU with all its opt-outs, the rebate and so on. if it didn't like the deal on offer.
Reality Check
The question: John asks: Is it not right that the USA has a trade agreement with the EU? I am sure that they have not agreed to freedom of movement. So why can we not negotiate a deal like them?
The answer: The USA does not currently have a free trade deal with the EU. It is in the process of negotiating a trade agreement called the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP.
The wording and details of the agreement have not been finalised, but it is indeed unlikely that it will include freedom of movement.
The EU's deal with Canada has also been cited as a possible starting point for the UK.
Both the US and Canada will get access to the single market without actually being part of it, so they will not get full access - Canada's deal, for example, excludes some food items such as eggs and chicken.
The UK could negotiate a trade deal with the EU that did not include freedom of movement, but it would be unlikely to provide the same access to the single market that it currently has.
Reality Check
The question: Neil asks: Can Scotland make a deal with the EU separate to England without leaving the EU?
The answer: We can't say for sure as this is an unprecedented situation and the treaties do not refer to this situation.
If Scotland were to hold a second referendum, and become independent, it could apply to become a member of the EU in the usual way. And it is now more plausible that EU member states would try to speed up the process for Scotland than it would have been at the time of the 2014 independence referendum.
We cannot say if it would be able to keep the UK's membership without going through some sort of application process, but Spain and France have both said they are opposed to holding separate talks with Scotland before the UK leaves the EU, and any deal would require unanimous backing of member states.
Reality Check
The question: Graeme emails to ask: Now that the EU referendum vote has been declared to leave EU, is it not possible for the government to have a second referendum vote just the same as SNP wants to have another referendum for independence.
The answer: It is unlikely that there would be a second in-out referendum, not least because there is little evidence it would have a different result.
In a post-referendum poll by ComRes, 92% of leave voters said they were happy with the outcome, while 4% of remain voters were happy (and, overall, 7% were indifferent).
Also, MPs (with a handful of exceptions) have been rushing to say that the result of the vote must be respected.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has suggested there may be a second referendum on the terms of an eventual deal to the leave the EU, although that is not required by current legislation.
Reality Check
Today, the Reality Check team is answering your questions about the implications of the UK's vote to leave the European Union.
Send us your questions and we'll answer as many as we can.
You can get in touch by using the Get Involved button at the top of this page.