Conservative Party's Official Social Media Account Called Out For 'Misleading" NHS Claim

The Conservative Party has been corrected once again on social media by other social media users over its false claims – this time, it’s all to do with NHS.

PM Rishi Sunak pledged to cut NHS waiting lists in his five pledges for 2023.

And, almost halfway through 2024, the Conservative Party’s official account on X (formerly Twitter) implied they were successfully fulfilling this promise in a post published on Thursday.

It read: “NHS waiting lists are down again.

“The plan is working. That’s why it’s important we stick with it.”

The attached graphic includes a line bouncing in a downwards trends across the last six months, with huge writing spelling out: “Biggest 6-month fall in NHS waiting list.”

There is a small caption further down the graphic which adds the important context: “In over 10 years.”

So, understandably, other accounts corrected the post.

The community note attached reads: “Official NHS statistics show this isn’t the biggest six month fall in 10 years: that happened in May 2020.

“Further, choosing a 10 year time limit is misleading. The drop to Mar 2024 was 230k.

“Every month, Feb 2008 to Mar 2009, the drop was higher, peaking at 1.1m in June 2008.”

It included a link back to the NHS England’s statistics for March 2024 which were released yesterday, too.

This is far from the first time the Tories have been called on social media for “misleading” claims.

Research, conducted by pro-EU campaign group Best for Britain and first reported by The Independent, previously found that the Conservative Party is almost five times more likely to be corrected than Labour.

As of March, the prime minister himself had been publicly corrected on 25 different occasions for his misleading posts on social media.