Did Rishi Sunak, prime minister of the U.K. and leader of the Conservative Party, state that there are plans in place to pay citizens £75,000 to leave the country? No, that's not true: Neither Sunak nor the Tories as a whole have proposed that plan during the country's general election. The claim came from a satirical social media account.
The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) on TikTok on June 11, 2024. The caption of the video read:
Leaving the UK and getting £75k will be a new offer of the next govt Rishi Sunak. #uk #ukgovernment #rishisunak #electioninuk. #ukimmigration #foryou #foryoupage
This is what the video looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Jun 26 14:45:51 2024 UTC)
Sunak hasn't made such plans
There is no evidence that Sunak has articulated a plan to pay British citizens a large sum of money to leave the country. Lead Stories did a search using keywords on Google News, visible here, which found no credible documents or reporting to corroborate the claim. We also searched the websites of both Sunak and the Conservative Party and did not find news of any proposed action resembling the claim. The Tories' Clear Plan (archived here), the party's manifesto spearheaded by Sunak during the 2024 general election, also does not outline any such reward for citizens leaving the country.
It's satirical claim
It appears that the claim originated from a satirical social media outlet called Bulls Nose News. Lead Stories did a search using keywords on Google, visible here, to find more information about the claim. The earliest appearance we could find was a video (archived here) posted to TikTok on June 4, 2023, by Bulls Nose News. The description of the account reads:
Here Lies The Truth, News You Can Trust
Satire/Parody
Bulls Nose News also reposted the video to its YouTube channel a year later on June 4, 2024 (here and here).
Audio in video is not related to claim
The audio in the video making the claim does not have anything to do with the purported £75,000 payout. It originates from a debate (archived here) between Sunak and Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour Party, on June 4, 2024. In the relevant section of the debate, the two were discussing national taxes (archived here).
Additional fact checks
Other fact check agencies have also reviewed this claim, including Full Fact and Reuters.
More Lead Stories fact checks related to Sunak can be found here.
