Reality Check: The EU referendum

Summary

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

Live Reporting

Would Brexit cut wages by £38 per week?published at 13:18 British Summer Time 1 June 2016
Reality Check
The claim: Trade union umbrella body the TUC says leaving the EU would cut average earnings by £38 per week by 2030.
Reality Check verdict: The TUC has taken other bodies' forecasts that leaving the EU would lead to slower growth in the economy and used them to predict lower wages. While the precise figures are highly uncertain, if you believe the forecasts for the economy you can also believe that wages would be lower.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Will the UK have to pay billions in tax refunds?published at 13:12 British Summer Time 1 June 2016
Reality Check
The claim: Vote Leave says membership of the EU means the UK will have to pay out up to £43bn in tax refunds to multinational businesses.
Reality Check verdict: The £43bn figure is not a definite commitment, it is what HMRC considers to be the most the UK might have to pay. It could be significantly lower depending on the outcome of current court cases. We don't know how much of it is connected to EU membership.
Read the full Reality Check here.
How much EU money goes to poorer countries?published at 10:14 British Summer Time 1 June 2016
Reality Check
The question: Rebecca asks BBC Radio 4's PM programme "How much of the EU budget is spent on developing the economies of the poorest member states, from which a large majority of economic migrants come? Many of whom do so reluctantly, leaving family members behind due to limited opportunities in their own countries."
Reality Check verdict: The poorest countries received about 25% of overall EU expenditure in 2014, according to the European Commission.
Read the full Reality Check here.
What is the cost of EU regulations?published at 09:39 British Summer Time 1 June 2016
Reality Check
The claim: The think-tank Open Europe, quoted by Vote Leave, calculates that £33.3bn is the annual cost of the 100 "most burdensome" EU regulations for the UK economy.
Reality Check verdict: The £33.3bn figure describes the projected annual cost of 100 EU regulations, without taking account of the benefits, estimated by Open Europe to be £58.6bn. There is no guarantee that regulatory costs would be much lower after a Brexit. The EU is involved in setting global standards in many fields, so the UK would still be bound by many rules if it left the EU.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Has Leave promised £110bn of unfunded spending?published at 20:00 British Summer Time 31 May 2016
Reality Check
The claim: Leave campaigners have suggested a British government outside the EU could spend billions of pounds on the NHS, schools and tax cuts.
Reality Check verdict: If you add together all the different suggestions from leave campaigners about how Britain's contribution to the EU might otherwise be spent, they come to more than anyone thinks would be affordable. They are not actual spending commitments because none of the Leave campaigners can guarantee that any particular proposal for spending would happen following Brexit.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Are 1.2m businesses involved in exports to the EU?published at 16:56 British Summer Time 31 May 2016
Reality Check
The Claim: 1.2 million small and medium businesses are involved in exports to the European Union.
Reality Check verdict: This figure is based on imperfect data, which means assumptions have been made, some of which are open to challenge. The definition of "involved" includes firms anywhere on the supply chain of an exporter, which is why the figure is so high.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Where does EU money go?published at 16:24 British Summer Time 31 May 2016
Reality Check
Many of the questions you ask Reality Check are about how much the European Union costs, and where the money goes.
Here's a guide to what happens to the funds the 28 member states contribute to the EU budget.
Read the full Reality Check here.
How would Brexit affect fishing waters?published at 10:37 British Summer Time 31 May 2016
Reality Check
The question: Rosemary asks BBC Radio 4's PM programme "Would the UK have its fishing waters returned to the pre-EU status if we vote to leave?"
Reality Check verdict: It depends on what kind of agreements the UK makes with the EU and whether it would allow foreign vessels to access its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Read the full Reality Check here.
How hard is it to win £50m football contest?published at 19:46 British Summer Time 27 May 2016
Reality Check
The claim: Anyone can win £50 million by correctly predicting the result of all 51 games in the Euro 2016 football championships. Vote Leave says this figure represents the amount of money the UK sends to the EU every day.
Reality Check verdict: Unlikely anyone could win this prize. The odds of winning are only slightly better than the odds of guessing the mobile phone numbers of the next two strangers you see in the street. The UK does not send £50 million a day to the EU.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Have the campaigns been fair with figures?published at 17:20 British Summer Time 27 May 2016
Reality Check
The Claim: The two sides in the EU referendum campaign have been accused of peddling "misleading" figures and "implausible assumptions" by a committee of MPs.
Reality Check verdict: There is growing acceptance that both sides could be clearer about the figures they're using to support their arguments.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Is immigration hopelessly out of control?published at 17:19 British Summer Time 27 May 2016
Reality Check
The claim: Migration to the UK is out of control and will get worse if Britain remains in the EU.
Reality Check verdict: Net migration is still at near-record levels. Just over half of it comes from outside the EU. The government has not managed to bring migration from outside the EU down to tens of thousands as the 2010 and 2015 manifestos promised, so it is not clear it would be able to do so with EU migrants post-Brexit.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Would leaving the EU be bad for pensioners?published at 14:20 British Summer Time 27 May 2016
Reality Check
The claim: Leaving the European Union would make pensioners worse off.
Reality Check verdict: The predictions are based on the Treasury's economic model, which may or may not turn out to be right. There are also things about leaving the EU that could be good for pensioners.
Read the full Reality Check here.
How might Brexit affect the Premier League?published at 12:24 British Summer Time 27 May 2016
Reality Check
The question: Simon asks BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "Would withdrawal from the EU mean that more British footballers had a chance to play in the Premier League, and would those European-sourced players no longer have free access to appear in English teams?"
Reality Check verdict: This depends on whether home clubs decide to bring in more top level international players or give opportunities to British footballers.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Fact-checking the Derbyshire debatepublished at 19:40 British Summer Time 26 May 2016
Reality Check
This evening the Reality Check team will be live fact-checking the EU Referendum debate in Glasgow.
This debate, hosted by Victoria Derbyshire, will be aimed at younger voters, and will be in front of an audience of 18 to 29 year olds.
You can follow our fact-checking here.
Play EU Referendum debate Bingopublished at 18:56 British Summer Time 26 May 2016
Reality Check
As a special treat for the EU referendum debates, the Reality Check team brings you EU claim Bingo.
The first of the BBC's big debates takes place in Glasgow at 8pm this evening.
Each time a participant mentions one of the things in the grid above you get to check it off.
Find out more about it here.
How would Brexit affect British students?published at 14:45 British Summer Time 26 May 2016
The question: Candida asks BBC Radio 4's PM programme: "If we exit, what will happen to British students preparing to, or already studying at European universities?"
Reality Check verdict: Nothing would change until a new deal is agreed between the UK and EU member states.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Will the UK end up joining an EU army?published at 09:41 British Summer Time 26 May 2016
Reality Check
The Claim: Veterans for Britain says the EU is planning the creation of an EU army, which would mean the UK would lose control of its defences.
Reality Check verdict: Many European politicians want to see the creation of an EU army, but EU treaties are clear that it could be blocked by Britain.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Does the EU mean cheaper roaming charges?published at 11:57 British Summer Time 25 May 2016
The claim: British holidaymakers would have to pay more to use their phones abroad if we left the European Union.
Reality Check verdict: It's fair for the EU to take credit for the abolition of roaming charges next year, but we can't say that if the UK left the EU that British consumers wouldn't still benefit from the deal, or that prices would go up.
Read the full Reality Check here.
Reality Check answers your questionspublished at 11:45 British Summer Time 25 May 2016
Reality Check
Send your questions on the EU referendum to @BBCRealityCheck or realitycheck@bbc.co.uk. We'll try to answer as many as we can between now and June 23.
Find the answer to Dan's question here.
How many UK citizens are extradited?published at 10:41 British Summer Time 25 May 2016
Reality Check
The question: Alan asks BBC Radio 4' s PM programme: "How many UK citizens have been arrested and extradited to other EU states compared with citizens of other EU states extradited to the UK?"
Reality Check verdict: In the financial years 2009-16, 7,436 people were extradited from the UK to another EU country. Of these, 292 were UK nationals. Meanwhile, 897 people were extradited to the UK. Of these, 352 were EU nationals.
Read the full Reality Check here.