This round-up of claims has been compiled by Full Fact, the UK’s independent fact-checking charity which works to give people access to reliable information they can trust.
Do 380 ‘illegal boat migrants’ live in Makerfield?
Images circulating on social media ahead of this week’s by-election in Makerfield showed what appears to be a Reform UK leaflet claiming that “380 illegal boat migrants” live in the constituency. But this is not an official figure, and isn’t reliable.
We asked Reform UK to confirm whether the leaflet, which bears the party’s branding, was distributed by the party, but we haven’t had a response. At least two different images showing the leaflet have been shared online, one by a Reform councillor.
As we’ve had no response from Reform, we also can’t say for sure what the source is for the “380 illegal boat migrants” figure. From what we’ve seen previously, it appears to be a broad estimate based on data that shows the number of asylum seekers currently receiving support from the Government who live in each local authority.
Reform has previously confirmed it produced a similar leaflet for the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, which we fact checked at the time. When we used the same methodology, the party told us it used to produce that earlier leaflet, we were able to match the 380 figure on the Makerfield leaflet.
No reliable data shows the exact number of small boat arrivals living in each parliamentary constituency.
The latest figures show that as of March 31st, 2026, a total of 1,188 asylum seekers were receiving support from the Government in the Wigan Council area.
The vast majority of these were being housed by the Government, though 10 received ‘subsistence only’ support (meaning they have sourced their own accommodation).
The Makerfield parliamentary constituency falls entirely within the area covered by Wigan Council, and eight of the council’s 25 electoral wards (or 32 per cent) are located wholly in Makerfield.
This percentage appears to have been applied to the total number of asylum seekers supported by Wigan Council (assuming the figure was calculated in the same way as the estimate in Gorton and Denton). If 32 per cent of the 1,188 asylum seekers supported by Wigan Council are in the Makerfield constituency, that works out at 380.
As we explained when we wrote about the Gorton and Denton estimate, there are several issues with claiming that a figure calculated this way shows the number of “illegal boat migrants” living in a given constituency.
Firstly, it assumes asylum seekers are spread out evenly across every ward in each local authority – we don’t know if this is actually the case, so this figure can only be illustrative.
This figure also refers specifically to people with open asylum cases (as well as some failed asylum seekers) who are receiving support from the Government.
We don’t know how many of these asylum seekers arrived by small boat crossing – some may have arrived via other irregular routes (for example, in the back of a lorry) while others may have arrived on a valid visa and gone on to claim asylum.
Official statistics show that in the year ending March 2026, roughly two-fifths of asylum seekers in the UK arrived by small boat crossing, although we don’t know if the same proportions apply to asylum seekers receiving Government support.
We also don’t know how many people may be currently living in the constituency who arrived by small boat crossing but are not receiving asylum support from the Government (for example, those who have subsequently had their asylum application approved).
Clip of a fighter jet being shot down is from a video game
A dramatic video of a warplane being shot down has been viewed thousands of times on social media, and shared with claims it shows Iranian fighter jets attempting to enter Israeli airspace.
But this isn’t real footage. The video is actually from the military game War Thunder.
The clip was shared on X and Facebook on June 14 with claims that three Iranian fighter jets were destroyed.
We traced the clip to a video posted on YouTube on June 7, claiming to show the video game War Thunder. This version is much clearer and therefore more obviously computer-generated. The account sharing it regularly posts clips from the game, and the end of the clip features the game’s distinctive ‘kill sound’.
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A spokesperson for Gaijin Entertainment, which makes the game, also confirmed the footage is from War Thunder.
Iran fired missiles at northern Israel on June 7, prompting retaliatory strikes from Israel. On June 14th the US reached a preliminary agreement to end the war with Iran.
Although Israel claimed to have shot down an Iranian jet in March, we have not seen any reliable reports of this having happened in June.
We have previously fact-checked many other video game clips that have been shared on social media with misleading captions saying that they depict real-world events.