Reality Check

Celebrating the Conservatives’ win in Hartlepool, Boris Johnson said: "It's thanks to Brexit that we've actually been able to go ahead with the freeport in the whole of Teesside, do things like take back control of our borders, we’re able to deal with things like the European Super League".

There are about 80 freeports around the EU, so the UK could have had a Teesside freeport without Brexit – as we’ve pointed out before.

The tax breaks offered as part of the scheme can probably be more generous now they do not need to be cleared by the European Commission though. But, under the UK’s trade deal with the EU, any such subsidies need to be justified or they could – in theory – trigger action from the EU.

The UK has certainly made changes in its border policies, with a new immigration system and ending freedom of movement for EU citizens (which also applies to UK citizens going to the EU).

It is unclear how Brexit affected the government’s ability to deal with the European Super League. Big clubs in several EU countries refused to sign up to the breakaway competition (while six English clubs did) - which subsequently collapsed. We’ve asked Downing Street to explain this claim but have not heard back.

Image source, PA Media

Reality Check

Image source, Getty Images

A conservative talk show host has claimed thousands of people are dying in the US after receiving a Covid jab.

Tucker Carlson, well-known as a vaccine sceptic, said in a Fox News segment: “Between late December of 2020 and last month, a total of 3,362 people apparently died after getting the Covid vaccine in the US… That’s an average of roughly 30 people every day.”

But his comments are highly misleading, as dying after receiving a vaccine doesn’t mean the death was caused by it.

Carlson was referring to a US government database, external where people can report health problems after vaccination.

But Carlson’s claim that all these deaths are as a result of Covid can be easily debunked.

The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that on average around 8,000 people die a day of all causes in the US, external.

By the end April, the US had vaccinated around 40% of its population - so you would have expected around 3,200 vaccinated people to die every day of something.

Carlson’s figure of 30 people a day is a tiny fraction of the number of vaccinated Americans you would expect to die every day for reasons that have nothing to do with vaccination.

It is also highly misleading to link it to vaccinations as he has done. The CDC analysed this same data and found no link between vaccinations and deaths, external.

The self-reporting scheme (VAERS) says its database “may include incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental and unverified information” and “cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness”.

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Reality Check

During their heated exchanges, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said to Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer: “Last night, our friends in the European Union voted to approve our Brexit deal, which he opposed.”

If the prime minister is referring to the vote in the House of Commons that followed the deal then that is not correct.

The vote took place on 30 December and was backed by the Commons by 521 to 73 votes after Parliament was recalled.

The Labour leader voted in favour of the legislation on the agreement as did the vast majority of Labour MPs.

The Labour leader had said a "thin deal was better than no deal". He had criticised a number of aspects of the deal.

Reality Check

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson and Labour leader Keir Starmer clashed over the controversial refurbishment of the DowningStreet flat where the prime minister is living.

Mr Johnson said: “I’d rather not spend taxpayers’ money, by the way, like the last Labour government, which spent £500,000 of taxpayers’ money on the Downing Street flat”.

The figures for annual spending, external appear in a parliamentary answer from a Cabinet Office minister.

The £500,000 figure is what you get if you adjust rising prices and add up all the spending over the period of Labour governments between 1997 and 2010.

If you take it in cash terms, to reflect the annual £30,000 allowance, there were several years when the spending was over that level.

But the total spending over 13 years was £370,000, which is just under £30,000 a year.

Reality Check

At the climate summit, leaders sought to outbid each other with their pledges on cutting carbon emissions over the next decade.

The numbers can be confusing, so let’s try to make sense of them.

The US pledged to cut carbon emissions by around 50% (from 2005 levels) by 2030.

The UK announced a "world-leading" target to cut emissions by 78% (from 1990 levels) by 2035, having previously committed to 68% by 2030.

Other countries such as Canada have also increased their commitments.

Different countries use different years as the starting point for comparison, usually from when their emissions peaked – partly to show their pledges in the best light.

For example, the US compares their 2030 target to 2005 levels, and the UK uses 1990 levels - about the time when emissions peaked in their respective countries.

However, by either comparison point, the UK’s 2030 target is the most ambitious.

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Reality Check

You can’t see or smell carbon dioxide (CO2) but it’s actually all around us and is at the heart of the world's changing climate.

Scientists believe the last time levels of CO2 in the atmosphere were as high as they are now was probably more than three million years ago.

Reality Check’s Chris Morris explains why limiting the amount of carbon dioxide we use is so important.

Reality Check

Image source, Getty Images

China is the largest overall producer of coal, but at the summit its President Xi Jinping said his country has plans to limit consumption of the fossil fuel and “strictly control” coal fired power projects.

Chinese coal production increased by 4% in 2019, according to the latest statistics available on the Our World in Data website.

After declining during the pandemic year, the use of coal - a key driver of global warming - is predicted to increase in 2021 according to the International Energy Agency.

Among the top countries, coal production rose in Indonesia and by a small amount in Australia.

Australia is a major exporter of fossil fuels and was responsible for the largest amount of coal produced per capita.d

In the same year, overall production fell in the United States and India.

Reality Check

Most of us have heard of a carbon footprint by now - the amount of greenhouse gases released into the Earth’s atmosphere due to the activities of an individual or an organisation.

But what are these activities? And how do you reduce your carbon footprint?

There’s the direct impact of the energy we use to travel or power our homes.

Flying less and cutting down on the use of petrol or diesel cars can help lower your footprint.

There’s also the indirect impact as a result of the energy used to produce all the things we consume.

BBC Reality Check takes a look at ways we can change how we live to make a difference:

BBC Reality Check's Chris Morris explains how changing three aspects of how you live can make the biggest dent to your carbon footprint.

Reality Check

During Prime Minister's Questions, Boris Johnson said that "It was under the last Labour government that jobs in steel fell by more than 50% and output fell by more than 50%”.

If you look at 1997 to 2010, then figures from the International Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB) show that steel jobs in the UK almost halved over this period.

According to the ISSB, steel employed 35,000 in 1997 and just 19,000 in 2010. That's a reduction of 46%.

By 2014, four years after the Conservatives took power in coalition with the Lib Dems, this had fallen further - to 18,000.

Meanwhile, steel production in the UK fell from 18.3 million tonnes in 1997 to 9.7 million tonnes in 2010, a 47% drop.

These declines happened as production and exports originating from China increased. The sharpest drop in production occurred after the banking crisis of 2008, which led to collapse in global demand.

Reality Check

At PMQs earlier, Boris Johnson said that Keir Starmer “called the ventilator challenge an outstanding success and he was completely right”.

The ventilator challenge was the government’s way of encouraging manufacturers to develop and build mechanical ventilators in the early days of the pandemic, when it was thought that many of them would be needed.

The Labour leader was indeed enthusiastic about it, tweeting, external that it was: “an example of how UK manufacturers, a world class workforce and Unite the Union have come together to provide our NHS with the vital equipment it urgently needs. Well done to everyone involved.”

Reality Check

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Labour leader Keir Starmer clashed over the “ventilator challenge” and billionaire businessman James Dyson’s role in it (including his texts to the PM).

The ventilator challenge was set up in March 2020 when the NHS was worried it would need far more mechanical ventilators (machines to help patients breathe) than were available.

In response, the government decided to buy as many as possible and also encourage manufacturers to develop new ones (the ventilator challenge).

The National Audit Office (NAO) says there were more than 5,000 “initial responses” to this.

These were “sifted” and the handful that ended up being chosen were - according to the NAO, external - picked on the basis of whether they met regulatory standards and could be built at scale and quickly.

Dyson’s CoVent model was not one of these and support for it was ended on 8 May – although it was considered clinically usable.

Ultimately, the expected demand for ventilators did not materialise.