Fact Check: Labor Promises for Safe Haven Hotels and Possible AI-Generated Images of Mike Tyson

This claims review was compiled Full factThe UK’s largest fact-checking charity, dedicated to finding, exposing and countering the harm of misinformation.

Full Fact Government Tracker Reviews Pledge to End Asylum Hotels

In its 2024 election manifesto, the Labor Party pledged to “end shelter hotels, saving taxpayers billions of pounds.” Full Fact looked into the pledge and found that the number of hotels used to house asylum seekers has increased since Labor came to power.

On 20 November 2024, Dame Angela Eagle MP, Minister for Border Security and Asylum, confirmed that 220 hotels were currently in use, up from 213 at the time of the July general election. She added that during this period, 14 new hotels opened and seven closed.

Ms Eagle said: “We remain committed to exiting hotels; however, in the near future they will remain key to meeting our legal responsibilities to ensure people are not left destitute.”

Images likely to be artificial intelligence mistakenly show Mike Tyson wearing a Palestinian flag ahead of his fight with Jake Paul

Following former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson’s recent fight against YouTube boxer-turned-boxer Jake Paul, photos of Mr. Tyson apparently draped in a Palestinian flag emerged before the fight. spread on the Internet.

But they are not real and appear to have been created by artificial intelligence.

Neither reporting nor photos from the event showed Tyson showing support for the Palestinians in this way, and his publicist told Full Fact the portrayal was “false.”

Signs that the image was most likely created by artificial intelligence include the absence of a tattoo on Mr. Tyson’s chest, inaccuracies on the flag, and, in some versions, Mr. Tyson wearing black shorts with nonsensical text (usually indicating that artificial intelligence may have been used ).

The government has not introduced “free bus travel for immigrants”

False claims on social media The document circulated claimed the government had introduced a new policy to provide “free bus travel for immigrants” and suggested it was linked to a decision to increase the cap on bus fares to £3.

Although the bus fare cap will increase from £2 to £3 in January 2025 following an announcement in the Autumn Budget, there is no national scheme providing immigrants with free bus travel.

When Full Fact contacted the Home Office about the virus claims, a spokesman said by email: “This is not true.”

There have been short-term pilots offering free bus travel to asylum seekers in some regions, including a previous scheme in Northern Ireland and a planned program in Oxford, but nothing nationwide.

The £2 bus fare cap was due to end by the end of this year, while the £3 cap is a new cap that will run from January to December 2025.